Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I also wish to speak on the motion put forward by the member for Murray and congratulate her for having done so. Many of us in this place represent areas of Australia where fruit growing is a very important local industry. In the electorate of Canning, which I represent, there are many orchardists and fruit growers who are under increasing pressure on a number of fronts. They are often reminded of the pressure on domestic industries such as manufacturing. However, many of the same hindrances, such as the Australian dollar, have similarly affected fruit growers all around Australia. Other cost pressures such as wage increases and the inability to secure reliable labour have resulted in many fruit growers abandoning their orchards and looking for a more secure, less volatile source of income.

The last thing fruit growers in Australia need is a federal bureaucracy that is intent on making life more difficult for them. However, sadly, this is what seems to be occurring. I have risen several times in this House to argue against the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority—APVMA—and its continued push to ban fenthion, the last remaining effective cover spray for the control of the Mediterranean fruit fly, otherwise known as medfly. Growers in the Perth Hills, led by orchardist Brett DelSimone and other members of the Hills Orchard Improvement Group, have done an outstanding job in fighting the APVMA's attempt to ban this chemical, a proposal which is based on spurious science and no evidence that this chemical has in fact been harmful to those consuming fruit treated with fenthion. I applaud those growers who have put their operations on hold to fiercely fight this bureaucratic decision that, if it were successful, would see many orchardists have to leave their properties due to the fruit fly infestations that it would bring.

In fact, in the Canning electorate we have already seen and heard on the news about two major fruit-growing families, the Byl family and the Casotti family, who have decided that enough is enough and that their best option is to leave their orchard and have it chopped up and sold up as real estate. Keeping in mind that these orchardists have farmed the same property for generations, we can understand that such a decision is not taken lightly by those who have heavily invested in these orchards. My thoughts are with those families who have had to make this very difficult decision. The proposal by APVMA to ban fenthion has been named as one of the contributing factors to these families finally deciding that they have to leave their orchard and their income.

My frustration is born from the fact that unnecessary pressure is being placed on these growers. There are some variables that all primary producers acknowledge are out of control, and we have heard again this morning about the high Australian dollar. However APVMA's proposed ban on the last remaining cover spray that controls the devastating effects of medfly infestation is an absolute kick in the guts for these growers, who do not deserve it and do not need it.

I am continuing to press the new agriculture minister in Western Australia, Ken Baston, to understand the implications of the APVMA's proposal and the shattering effects this will have on the local fruit growing industry. I do hope that we will have more success with him than we had with the previous minister, who lazily and blindly absorbed advice from the bureaucrats in his department, DAFWA, rather than consult with those orchardists with generations of experience—in other words, the people on the ground who actually know.

There is a significant food security issue here. Without domestic fruit growers being able to remain competitive, they will inevitably continue to abandon the industry, and this will very quickly result in international competitors filling the gap. As we know from past experience, once imports fill the place of domestic produce, this market share is never recovered. I will continue to push both the WA state government and, indeed, the federal government, to avoid the unnecessary destruction of another primary industry and preserve the use of fenthion.

I urge the federal minister, Joe Ludwig, to stand up for the industry, stand up to his department and stand up for the growers who are set to lose their orchards due to this illogical push to ban fenthion. However, given his scant regard for the cattle industry and its destruction, I do not hold a lot of faith. But I do hold faith in the shadow minister, John Cobb, who has already outlined that the coalition's position, should we be the government in three months, is that we will not ban fenthion. We will make sure that the growers do have this cover and support so that the industry can be sustained and maintained. As I have already said, nowhere in the world has anyone ever demonstrated that this spray is in any way dangerous or will cause ill health. If fenthion goes, our domestically produced fruit will go, jobs will go, imported fruit will take over and Australians will be worse off as a result.

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