Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this morning to support the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Public Health and Safety) Amendment Bill 2010, put forward by my colleague the member for Cowper. This amendment bill put forward by the member for Cowper would deem the environment minister to have given consent to the licence application by the New South Wales state government for the relocation of the Maclean flying fox colony, which has located itself in the grounds of the Maclean High School, the TAFE and a nearby residential area in northern New South Wales. Whilst I acknowledge that it would not apply to any other colony or to any other licence application, this issue is obviously is not limited to the community of Maclean. In my electorate of Maranoa, flying foxes have been a major problem for orchardists on the Granite Belt in Stanthorpe in Southern Queensland, which is not very far as the crow might fly from the Maclean school. I have spoken about this issue in the House before, after receiving calls from desperate orchardists, some of whom told stories about staying up throughout the night in order to protect their incomes from the very hungry flying foxes which have decimated much of the fruit in the orchards. As we enter another fruit season, this is as we speak a very serious issue right now.

The Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities is well aware of this issue in my electorate, because I met with him in October last year when he was the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. He said it was primarily a responsibility of the Queensland government, and of course I acknowledge it is. However, this bill, if passed, will hopefully send a message to the Queensland state Labor government that the welfare of humans should be a priority over the welfare of bats. In Queensland they are putting the welfare of the bats ahead of the welfare of humans, and I will touch on that in a moment.

Before damage mitigation permits were revoked by the city-centric Queensland Labor government, the flying foxes did not pose a problem because the DMPs allowed for the scout bat, which is the bat that looks for a new roosting place for the colony, to be terminated—quickly and humanely. But since the DMPs were revoked by the state Labor government, which was obviously pandering to the Greens and the Green agenda, there has been no deterrent as effective as this method. A working group in Queensland has been set up but I am not sure that there has been much progress yet. Alternative deterrent methods such as netting the orchard have been trialled in Queensland, but these are either expensive or not suitable for particular types of orchard, particularly those on slopes. I have also heard that the bats are getting through the netting. They actually climb under the netting and then get trapped, panic and begin to exhaust themselves in a desperate attempt to escape, sometimes starving to death. Of course, the orchardist who finds the creatures is not allowed to put them out of their misery. They then die an inhumane and unnecessary death.

This time last year I presented a petition from orchardists on the Granite Belt which called on the Labor government to intervene and put pressure on their Labor counterparts in Queensland to immediately reinstate damage mitigation permits until a reliable, proven and affordable non-lethal alternative could be implemented to protect orchards from flying foxes. Essentially, what this petition requested is that their state government put humans ahead of flying foxes. I believe firmly that human health should be put ahead of the welfare of bats, and I am not just talking about the livelihood of orchardists on the Granite Belt or about the Maclean High School. I am talking about the health of those people who work in the equine industry. Flying fox bats are reservoirs for an enormous range of diseases, some of which are extremely deadly. Flying foxes are responsible for the hendra virus, which when transmitted via horses to humans has a mortality rate higher than 65 per cent. In horses the mortality rate is 100 per cent, because they have to be euthanased. Tragically, five people have died from contracting the hendra virus from horses. The Australian Animal Health Laboratory is working on a vaccine for the virus. But imagine the risk posed to humans by nearby large colonies of flying foxes such as those at Maclean High School or roosting near the Granite Belt orchards, which are certainly not their natural, native habitat. We already know that the lyssavirus, which is found in flying foxes, can be transferred to humans via a scratch or bite. (Time expired)

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