Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation and Industry) Share this | Hansard source

In recent months the streets of East Geelong have been dotted with the macabre sight of dead bats hanging from above, the victims of encounters with power lines. Over the summer the population of bats in Eastern Park has skyrocketed. As the arrival of the bats in Geelong has become a local water cooler topic, next door to Eastern Park is an institution which is taking a far more serious interest in bats. My bedroom window frames a local landmark. It is the large water tower of the Australian Animal Health Laboratory, otherwise known as AAHL. For the virologists at AAHL, it is all about bats.

It appears that many deadly diseases, including the Hendra virus and the SARS virus, have their roots in bats. Why bats in particular seem to cook up these viruses is the question on the lips of the scientists of AAHL. An even bigger question is: what is it about bats which means that they appear totally unaffected by the viruses? Bats may be the issue of the day, but they are just part of the work undertaken by this low-profile facility which represents the primary weapon against exotic and emerging animal diseases.

AAHL is Australia’s most secure facility and is the best in the world for the handling and containment of diseases. It has kept us free of foot-and-mouth disease, mad cow disease, scrapie and many fish diseases that could threaten the nation’s economic health. The language used to describe the science carried out at AAHL is military: early response, front line, rapid detection tools, disease countermeasures. That is because AAHL is to biosecurity what our Defence Force is to national security. It is a place where diseases can be safely studied and understood and responses developed to manage some of the deadliest disease threats of our time.

Three years ago horse flu nearly crippled the nation’s horse industry. AAHL was critical in the national response that quarantined and eradicated that disease from our horse population. We now know that three-quarters of new diseases in people can be traced back to animals. This was the case with the deadly Hendra virus that killed horse trainer Vic Rail back in 1994. Scientists at AAHL were the first to identify Hendra and today continue their work to develop a vaccine and treatment. To give some idea of the growing demand for its expertise, the number of individual diagnostic tests AAHL receives has grown 900 per cent in 10 years.

This year AAHL celebrated its 25th birthday. On the very day of its birthday, I had the great privilege of touring the facility. It is indeed impressive—more than 2,000 precast concrete wall panels, over 500 airtight doors, 62 air-handling systems and 1,000 high-efficiency air filters. To rebuild it today would cost $650 million, more than four times the money spent on construction in the early 1980s. In recent years, the Australian government has spent $55 million on AAHL, ensuring that it remains the pre-eminent facility of its kind in the world. The 300 people who work at AAHL may not wear army fatigues, but, as they handle the deadliest diseases known to humanity each and every day, the work they do is indeed heroic and just as fundamental to defending our country.

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