Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for New England for the question. I acknowledge the significance of the biosecurity issue that he raises—and the chorus of support from some of those opposite, seemingly ignorant of the fact that the Asian bee was found when they were in office and no program to do anything about it was put in place until we came to office. There was no program at all. The Asian bee was found in Queensland in May 2007, when Peter McGauran was the minister, and nothing was done.

The member for New England also referred to the fact that this is much bigger than the honey industry. The pollination services that are provided by bees go to a whole series of industries and make a massive difference to the productivity of those industries. There are a number of things that need to be put on the table and understood here. First of all, no other country has ever managed to eradicate Asian bees once they have arrived.

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