Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to speak on behalf of the Hills Orchard Improvement Group, or HOIG, and their current struggles now that the APVMA is phasing out the use of fenthion. Throughout the inquiry on the use of fenthion, the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia, or DAFWA, maintained that an area wide management program, an AWM, was an effective solution to the Mediterranean fruit fly problem in the area, from the maggot to adult fly phase. It is a multipronged approach involving ongoing monitoring of commercial and residential orchards, education of the wider community, as well as an element of compliance enforcement for those who do not follow the protocol.

On 5 November, the Hills growers were informed that DAFWA 'does not have a single cent' to put towards this program. Despite DAFWA imposing a levy of around $200,000 per year on the growers for this kind of contingency and knowing what the likely outcome was going to be from the APVMA, there is no planning in place to assist the Hills orchardists.

DAFWA is now relentlessly driving responsibility for the AWM onto individual producers. It is a completely unreasonable and unjustifiable cost to the growers, who are also left without any legislative authority to implement or enforce compliance. Monitoring is expected to be done by part-time volunteers and two DAFWA employees.

Having worked with the group for an extended period of time, I was deeply disappointed by the APVMA's decision. However, now I am disgusted at the abandonment of the Hills Orchard growers by DAFWA.

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