Dr TOYNE - 2000-10-18
Mr PALMER (Leader of Government Business): Mr Speaker, as in line with yesterday, I would ask that any questions directed to the Chief Minister be referred to the Deputy Chief Minister.
Dr TOYNE to MINISTER for PRIMARY INDUSTRY and FISHERIES
As a result of higher fuel prices and downturn in the Territory economy, there are 20% to 25% less trucks coming into Darwin. There is therefore a huge backlog on southbound freight and this at the start of the mango season. All local storage facilities are full and frantic growers are being told to keep their fruit on their trees, no matter what happens.
Last season, the mango crop had a market value of almost $37m. This year, after a splendid dry season, it was expected to increase substantially.Millions of dollars worth of mangoes are now stuck on the farms. This disaster was predictable and avoidable. What are you doing right now to ensure this valuable Territory industry gets its crop to market rather than have it rotting on the trees?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I was made aware of this problem as it emerged over the weekend. Let me say at the outset that the opposition spokesman’s question is based on two false premises. One is that there has been a downturn of trucks or fridge vans into the Northern Territory. Every week coming into Darwin we get between 80 and 100 fridge vans. What has happened this year is a number of things. One, there has been an extension of the season in Kununurra, to which some of these trucks are contracted, and the reason for that is that they had severe flooding in Kununurra earlier in the year and they were late in planting. One has to understand that the Kununurra season, which extends for five or six months, they have these trucks booked, and they have an obligation to their customers there.
Secondly, one of the other problems we encountered this year was a compaction of the mango season in that normally the season spreads over about 10 or 12 weeks, but because of the onset of the flowers in that cool period we had earlier on in the year and the remarkably good flowering on the mango trees, we have had a lot of fruit come on the market all at once rather than through an extended season.
This problem is not, and I repeat not, widespread throughout the industry. It relates mainly just to one distribution centre wherein he had quite a number of pallets of mangoes both in the fridge ...
Ms Martin: Hundreds?
Mr PALMER: Quite a number.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr PALMER: I have heard 700 to 800 pallets were left out. In fact, at the worst of the crisis there were 250 pallets under refrigeration and 100 outside, which is somewhat less than 700 or 800, the figure that was getting around.
Following a few phone calls over the weekend, I met with representatives of the mango industry and the Australian Trucking Association on Monday morning, firstly to try and get a handle on the size of the problem and, secondly, to see what we could do. The Australian Trucking Association and its members undertook to see what they could do to source more fridge vans into the Northern Territory, or into Darwin, and I understand at least one of the operators filled two or three fridge vans with empty milk crates to bring them up to Darwin just so you could get the fridge vans here.
The Mango Industry Association has asked their growers to slow the picking down, which you can do, just hold them on the trees for a while so we get a more orderly and steady flow. There has been a number of meetings with the mango growers and the Australian Trucking Association members to try and help alleviate the problem. I understand that they are arranging for nine or 10 fridge vans today.
It is something that could not have been foreseen easily. However, let me reiterate that it is a problem that seems to be confined to one consolidation centre. I have somewhere here a press release from another such centre saying: ‘Please, we have the capacity; we will organise it.’ The Australian Trucking Association tell me that part of the problem is a lack of early and forward planning on the part of the industry. As a result of that and the result of the meeting Monday, we resolved that early next year, in the early part of next year, March or April, we would sit down with the mango growers, the NTHA and the Australian Trucking Association to try and get a more orderly approach to the booking of trucks.
As I said, the industry in the past has relied upon backloading on the fridge vans that come into Darwin and, as I said, that is between 80 and 100, and that figure is no way down on any other year. There has not been a slow down in the Northern Territory economy, people are not eating less, Woolies aren’t selling less lettuce or fruit and vegetables.
The Australian Trucking Association, the major movers of fridge vans into Darwin tell me there are the same number here this year as there were last year.
Dr Toyne: Not true.
Mr PALMER: I base my comments on what the Australian Trucking Association is telling me. He just makes it up. He just gainsays. It is just not true, not true. Well I would ask him to say his source of reference. Who told you that?
Ms Martin: Why didn’t you go to the meeting last night, Mick? Weren’t you concerned about the growers?
Mr PALMER: There was a meeting last night and a number of resolutions came up as a result. My office has been in contact with the Mango Growers Association, probably hourly since Monday morning. My office has been in contact with the truckers probably hourly since Monday morning.
As I said, they are working together to try and resolve this problem. It is not a problem that was easily predicted in that the Kununurra season was not expected to extend that long, nor was the Darwin season for mangoes expected to be so compressed. However, it is a lesson for the future and a lesson that will be learned and a lesson that we needed to learn in that we need to better plan for the expansion of the mango industry. And as I speak here, we have the Chief Minister in Adelaide, $165m worth of planning to get product out of Darwin and product out of the Northern Territory south. $165m into a railway. What greater commitment could this government make to the carriage of product interstate, to put $165m into that project.
As I said, I am well aware of the problem. My office and I have been working with the Mango Industry Association and the Australian Truckers Association to resolve the problem and hopefully it will be resolved in the next few days.
Mango Industry – Freight Problems
Dr TOYNE to MINISTER for PRIMARY INDUSTRY and FISHERIES
As a result of higher fuel prices and downturn in the Territory economy, there are 20% to 25% less trucks coming into Darwin. There is therefore a huge backlog on southbound freight and this at the start of the mango season. All local storage facilities are full and frantic growers are being told to keep their fruit on their trees, no matter what happens.
Last season, the mango crop had a market value of almost $37m. This year, after a splendid dry season, it was expected to increase substantially.Millions of dollars worth of mangoes are now stuck on the farms. This disaster was predictable and avoidable. What are you doing right now to ensure this valuable Territory industry gets its crop to market rather than have it rotting on the trees?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I was made aware of this problem as it emerged over the weekend. Let me say at the outset that the opposition spokesman’s question is based on two false premises. One is that there has been a downturn of trucks or fridge vans into the Northern Territory. Every week coming into Darwin we get between 80 and 100 fridge vans. What has happened this year is a number of things. One, there has been an extension of the season in Kununurra, to which some of these trucks are contracted, and the reason for that is that they had severe flooding in Kununurra earlier in the year and they were late in planting. One has to understand that the Kununurra season, which extends for five or six months, they have these trucks booked, and they have an obligation to their customers there.
Secondly, one of the other problems we encountered this year was a compaction of the mango season in that normally the season spreads over about 10 or 12 weeks, but because of the onset of the flowers in that cool period we had earlier on in the year and the remarkably good flowering on the mango trees, we have had a lot of fruit come on the market all at once rather than through an extended season.
This problem is not, and I repeat not, widespread throughout the industry. It relates mainly just to one distribution centre wherein he had quite a number of pallets of mangoes both in the fridge ...
Ms Martin: Hundreds?
Mr PALMER: Quite a number.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr PALMER: I have heard 700 to 800 pallets were left out. In fact, at the worst of the crisis there were 250 pallets under refrigeration and 100 outside, which is somewhat less than 700 or 800, the figure that was getting around.
Following a few phone calls over the weekend, I met with representatives of the mango industry and the Australian Trucking Association on Monday morning, firstly to try and get a handle on the size of the problem and, secondly, to see what we could do. The Australian Trucking Association and its members undertook to see what they could do to source more fridge vans into the Northern Territory, or into Darwin, and I understand at least one of the operators filled two or three fridge vans with empty milk crates to bring them up to Darwin just so you could get the fridge vans here.
The Mango Industry Association has asked their growers to slow the picking down, which you can do, just hold them on the trees for a while so we get a more orderly and steady flow. There has been a number of meetings with the mango growers and the Australian Trucking Association members to try and help alleviate the problem. I understand that they are arranging for nine or 10 fridge vans today.
It is something that could not have been foreseen easily. However, let me reiterate that it is a problem that seems to be confined to one consolidation centre. I have somewhere here a press release from another such centre saying: ‘Please, we have the capacity; we will organise it.’ The Australian Trucking Association tell me that part of the problem is a lack of early and forward planning on the part of the industry. As a result of that and the result of the meeting Monday, we resolved that early next year, in the early part of next year, March or April, we would sit down with the mango growers, the NTHA and the Australian Trucking Association to try and get a more orderly approach to the booking of trucks.
As I said, the industry in the past has relied upon backloading on the fridge vans that come into Darwin and, as I said, that is between 80 and 100, and that figure is no way down on any other year. There has not been a slow down in the Northern Territory economy, people are not eating less, Woolies aren’t selling less lettuce or fruit and vegetables.
The Australian Trucking Association, the major movers of fridge vans into Darwin tell me there are the same number here this year as there were last year.
Dr Toyne: Not true.
Mr PALMER: I base my comments on what the Australian Trucking Association is telling me. He just makes it up. He just gainsays. It is just not true, not true. Well I would ask him to say his source of reference. Who told you that?
Ms Martin: Why didn’t you go to the meeting last night, Mick? Weren’t you concerned about the growers?
Mr PALMER: There was a meeting last night and a number of resolutions came up as a result. My office has been in contact with the Mango Growers Association, probably hourly since Monday morning. My office has been in contact with the truckers probably hourly since Monday morning.
As I said, they are working together to try and resolve this problem. It is not a problem that was easily predicted in that the Kununurra season was not expected to extend that long, nor was the Darwin season for mangoes expected to be so compressed. However, it is a lesson for the future and a lesson that will be learned and a lesson that we needed to learn in that we need to better plan for the expansion of the mango industry. And as I speak here, we have the Chief Minister in Adelaide, $165m worth of planning to get product out of Darwin and product out of the Northern Territory south. $165m into a railway. What greater commitment could this government make to the carriage of product interstate, to put $165m into that project.
As I said, I am well aware of the problem. My office and I have been working with the Mango Industry Association and the Australian Truckers Association to resolve the problem and hopefully it will be resolved in the next few days.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016