Mr RIOLI - 1999-02-24
Last Sunday you would have heard fishing enthusiasts’ concerns about the impact that chemicals used in cotton growing will have on fishing in the Daly River system. Given that transgenic cotton has not provided all the answers, can the minister guarantee an environmental impact assessment will be completed by persons independent of the Country Liberal Party administration and that the terms and results of the EIS will be made public?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, there has been considerable interest shown lately in the production of cotton in the Northern Territory and, indeed, northern Queensland and northern Western Australia. To make it clear at the outset, we are not talking of the cotton industry of 30 years ago. The transgenic cotton that the honourable member opposite refers to is known in the trade as ‘inguard’. The inguard currently uses a single gene, transgenic cotton, and it has given the cotton some resistance to heliothis moth. However the CSIRO is now working on the commercial release of what is called a 2-gene cotton, whereby the gene is inserted into proteins in the leaf of the cotton plant which in turn kills the grubs of the heliothis moth.
However, let me make something quite clear. There will be no commercial cotton industry in the Northern Territory until we are satisfied that all the proper environmental safeguards are in place. We are not talking the flood irrigation of the southern states, we’re talking modern, high tech - either lateral, centre pivot or t-tape irrigation which reduces the water load down to something like 7 megalitres per hectare. To put that into some perspective, dates require 30 megalitres per hectare a year.
Cotton is a low water user and it can be, in time, a low impact crop, but I give an assurance to the member opposite now that there will be no cotton industry in the Northern Territory until such time as all those environmental considerations ...
Ms Martin: Will they be made public?
Mr PALMER: I am not in a position, as minister for primary industries, to make directions in relation to environmental impact statements.Answers in relation to environmental impact statements are properly with the Minister for Lands, Planning and Environment, and I will not make those commitments on his behalf .
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, there has been considerable interest shown lately in the production of cotton in the Northern Territory and, indeed, northern Queensland and northern Western Australia. To make it clear at the outset, we are not talking of the cotton industry of 30 years ago. The transgenic cotton that the honourable member opposite refers to is known in the trade as ‘inguard’. The inguard currently uses a single gene, transgenic cotton, and it has given the cotton some resistance to heliothis moth. However the CSIRO is now working on the commercial release of what is called a 2-gene cotton, whereby the gene is inserted into proteins in the leaf of the cotton plant which in turn kills the grubs of the heliothis moth.
However, let me make something quite clear. There will be no commercial cotton industry in the Northern Territory until we are satisfied that all the proper environmental safeguards are in place. We are not talking the flood irrigation of the southern states, we’re talking modern, high tech - either lateral, centre pivot or t-tape irrigation which reduces the water load down to something like 7 megalitres per hectare. To put that into some perspective, dates require 30 megalitres per hectare a year.
Cotton is a low water user and it can be, in time, a low impact crop, but I give an assurance to the member opposite now that there will be no cotton industry in the Northern Territory until such time as all those environmental considerations ...
Ms Martin: Will they be made public?
Mr PALMER: I am not in a position, as minister for primary industries, to make directions in relation to environmental impact statements.Answers in relation to environmental impact statements are properly with the Minister for Lands, Planning and Environment, and I will not make those commitments on his behalf .
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016