Mr TOYNE - 1999-04-29
In recent years our primary industries have faced 3 major crises - the Philippines fruit fly in the mango and stone fruit industry, the Panama disease in the banana industry, and the latest threat posed by the black-striped mussel. The no-energy, no-leadership, no-vision budget delivered a savage blow to our resource protection program, which funds our quarantine efforts, at a time when the federal government is also downsizing its contribution. Minister, can you explain the logic of this?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, they fall for it year in, year out. Time and time again we tell them, but time and time again the opposition members fall for the old 3-card trick. In this year’s budget, on the surface, you’ll find a cut to primary industry of something like $5m, $4m of which is a downsizing of the tuberculosis freedom assurance program following on from the brucellosis and tuberculosis eradication program. That’s understandable. About $0.33m - and as I said to the honourable member last year, we don’t put in the budget what we haven’t got. Millions of dollars come into primary industry externally funded, and we don’t take account of that. In this year’s budget, as in last year’s budget, the budget result is vastly different to what’s published in the annual budget papers. You should run it from year to year, look for them from year to year, as to what was budgeted and what the result was.
We have had a substantial increase in the quarantine presence in the Northern Territory. The quarantine capabilities in the Northern Territory have been upgraded. We now have 2 dogs instead of one. But it is a factor of our geographic location that we are going to have quarantine incursions. All the quarantine surveillance in the world is not going to prevent these incursions from time to time.
What is important is that we against them. The citrus canker at Lambells Lagoon - we eradicated it. The poinsettia white fly - we eradicated it. The philippinensis fruit fly - we eradicated it. We controlled and probably eradicated the black-striped mussel.
Mr Toyne: That’s cost $7m. If you had kept it out in the first place …
Mr PALMER: Might I say, what a stupid interjection!
We now have an outbreak of Newcastle disease in New South Wales. That’s an endemic strain that has, all of a sudden and for no apparent reason other than, they think, some genetic mutation, has become virulent in chooks in New South Wales. No amount of quarantine surveillance, no amount of effort at the barriers can prevent that.
Australia does have an exemplary record in terms of maintaining its disease-free status. As I said, we went through the brucellosis and tuberculosis eradication campaign. That has never been done anywhere else in the world. The black-striped mussel is the first marine pest infestation anywhere in the world that has been eradicated.
My staff, and the Commonwealth staff who man the barriers at Darwin Airport and the wharves, are vigilant. However, when you’re dealing with microscopic organisms, no amount of vigilance is going to prevent the odd incursion. Our particular geographic location makes us highly susceptible to those incursions. But, as a result of that vigilance, we have never seen foot-and-mouth disease. We haven’t seen screw-worm fly, which is right on our borders. We haven’t had a number of the weed infestations that you can get from Asia - Siam weed etc
We will maintain that vigilance. My congratulations go to the quarantine staff because they have done, and do, an enormous job. The problem the opposition has, of course, is that it is unable to find fault with government in the eradication of the black-striped mussel. It sticks in their craw that not only was it eradicated but we did it with enormous amounts of public support. The member opposite must have been crawling under his bed, day in, day out, when we were getting on top of that problem, not only with public support but also with great cooperation from the media. The media cooperated extraordinarily well with us in promulgating the problem and telling the public of Darwin and especially those affected by it directly what we were doing, what we were about to do, what or intentions were and when they were likely to be able to get back into business.
It sticks in their craw that we are successful. Take, for example, fruit fly. We found it, we located it, we killed it. Citrus canker - we found it, we located it, we killed it. Panama strain 4 - we found it, we located it, we killed it. I can’t claim the destruction of poinsettia white fly. The wet season got it and killed it. Our climatic conditions did that in. But what it all proves is that our surveillance effort works. On the odd incursion, we were able to find the pests, locate them and eradicate them, and it sticks in the craw of the members opposite.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, they fall for it year in, year out. Time and time again we tell them, but time and time again the opposition members fall for the old 3-card trick. In this year’s budget, on the surface, you’ll find a cut to primary industry of something like $5m, $4m of which is a downsizing of the tuberculosis freedom assurance program following on from the brucellosis and tuberculosis eradication program. That’s understandable. About $0.33m - and as I said to the honourable member last year, we don’t put in the budget what we haven’t got. Millions of dollars come into primary industry externally funded, and we don’t take account of that. In this year’s budget, as in last year’s budget, the budget result is vastly different to what’s published in the annual budget papers. You should run it from year to year, look for them from year to year, as to what was budgeted and what the result was.
We have had a substantial increase in the quarantine presence in the Northern Territory. The quarantine capabilities in the Northern Territory have been upgraded. We now have 2 dogs instead of one. But it is a factor of our geographic location that we are going to have quarantine incursions. All the quarantine surveillance in the world is not going to prevent these incursions from time to time.
What is important is that we against them. The citrus canker at Lambells Lagoon - we eradicated it. The poinsettia white fly - we eradicated it. The philippinensis fruit fly - we eradicated it. We controlled and probably eradicated the black-striped mussel.
Mr Toyne: That’s cost $7m. If you had kept it out in the first place …
Mr PALMER: Might I say, what a stupid interjection!
We now have an outbreak of Newcastle disease in New South Wales. That’s an endemic strain that has, all of a sudden and for no apparent reason other than, they think, some genetic mutation, has become virulent in chooks in New South Wales. No amount of quarantine surveillance, no amount of effort at the barriers can prevent that.
Australia does have an exemplary record in terms of maintaining its disease-free status. As I said, we went through the brucellosis and tuberculosis eradication campaign. That has never been done anywhere else in the world. The black-striped mussel is the first marine pest infestation anywhere in the world that has been eradicated.
My staff, and the Commonwealth staff who man the barriers at Darwin Airport and the wharves, are vigilant. However, when you’re dealing with microscopic organisms, no amount of vigilance is going to prevent the odd incursion. Our particular geographic location makes us highly susceptible to those incursions. But, as a result of that vigilance, we have never seen foot-and-mouth disease. We haven’t seen screw-worm fly, which is right on our borders. We haven’t had a number of the weed infestations that you can get from Asia - Siam weed etc
We will maintain that vigilance. My congratulations go to the quarantine staff because they have done, and do, an enormous job. The problem the opposition has, of course, is that it is unable to find fault with government in the eradication of the black-striped mussel. It sticks in their craw that not only was it eradicated but we did it with enormous amounts of public support. The member opposite must have been crawling under his bed, day in, day out, when we were getting on top of that problem, not only with public support but also with great cooperation from the media. The media cooperated extraordinarily well with us in promulgating the problem and telling the public of Darwin and especially those affected by it directly what we were doing, what we were about to do, what or intentions were and when they were likely to be able to get back into business.
It sticks in their craw that we are successful. Take, for example, fruit fly. We found it, we located it, we killed it. Citrus canker - we found it, we located it, we killed it. Panama strain 4 - we found it, we located it, we killed it. I can’t claim the destruction of poinsettia white fly. The wet season got it and killed it. Our climatic conditions did that in. But what it all proves is that our surveillance effort works. On the odd incursion, we were able to find the pests, locate them and eradicate them, and it sticks in the craw of the members opposite.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016