Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I join others that have contributed to the debate on this bill to amend the Biological Control Act 1984. Those of us that live in regional Australia understand the impacts of biosecurity threats, dealt with through biological control mechanisms, such as those outlined by the member for Kennedy and, certainly, the member for Paterson before him. They go to how important it is for our ability as a nation to produce food and fibre, and also protect the environment that we are indeed blessed with in this country. So I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate on the Biological Control Amendment Bill 2016.

The member for Paterson's contribution was specifically around the issues of cyprinid herpesvirus 3, for the control of common carp, which is relevant to my state and relevant to my electorate, where the only incursion of European carp has occurred in two lakes in Tasmania, those being the adjacent lakes Lake Crescent and Lake Sorell. Through the extraordinary work and passion of Inland Fisheries Services in Tasmania—John Diggle, Chris Wisniewski and others—although it was said eradicating carp could not be done, they are well on their way at Lake Crescent. I particularly thank Greg Hunt, the Minister for the Environment, for the support that the Commonwealth government has shown to the Tasmanian government to manage and continue the work to eradicate, through largely mechanical means, the carp in both Lake Crescent and, increasingly, Lake Sorell. It was said it could not be done, but, as I said, Lake Crescent is a living example that it can. It is expected that, within the next 12 to 18 months, the last of the European carp that have been found in Lake Sorell will also be captured and destroyed. It is no mean task, because you only need one fertile female for the infestation to start all over again, all of sudden.

They have used a number of mechanisms, from netting to tracking—putting tracking devices on key species to be able to identify where the fish are in the lake at any one time. Ironically, the very dry period that we are experiencing in Tasmania has added to the ability to get on top of and hopefully eradicate that invasive species, which is quite extraordinary. I had the opportunity a number of months ago to fly out of Hobart and see the very deep blue of the lakes that you typically see in the Central Highlands. Lake Crescent was clearly a lake that was recovering, the carp having been removed, and it was a different colour, and you could see the brownness, the muddiness, that was quite evident at Lake Sorell, which is still a work in progress.

I note also, within this amendment bill, the highlighting of gorse, which is an invasive species that has proliferated in Tasmania over a very long period of time and has caused huge economic losses to many landowners as well as environmental impacts, not least of all in providing a habitat for the rabbits that were introduced so many years ago into this country. There are strategies in place to remove gorse, but it has become truly an invasive species of the first order.

This afternoon I want to focus most of my comments on a really tragic situation that exists at the moment in Tasmania, and that relates to POMS, or Pacific oyster mortality syndrome, a virus known as ostreid herpesvirus-1 microvariant. The disease has caused very high mortality rates in farmed Pacific oysters in Europe, in New Zealand, in South Korea and in Australia—in New South Wales. It does not affect any other oyster species. But it has also recently been discovered in the south-east of Tasmania, with tragic consequences, in areas including, in my electorate, the lower Pitt Water, the upper Pitt Water, Blackman Bay, Little Swanport and Dunalley Bay; and, in the member for Franklin's electorate, Pipe Clay Lagoon. It has also been confirmed in a population of wild oysters in the Derwent estuary. There is a suspicion also of infection at Great Bay on Bruny Island. It is presenting a challenge not only to the oyster farmers, and the small businesses that most of them are, but also to the state government in terms of developing an appropriate response to a disease of this magnitude. It has attracted a great deal of media attention.

I had the privilege—dubious, I guess—of hosting a meeting at Dunalley on Tuesday of last week, along with my Senate colleagues Senator Abetz and Senator Parry, and Senate candidate Jonno Duniam, with representatives of the oyster industry in Tasmania, including Oysters Tasmania, represented by Neil Stump; Cremorne Pacific Oysters; Bing-i-Oysters; Marion Bay Oysters; Fulham Aquaculture and Bangor Wine and Oyster Shed, represented by Tom Gray; and Cameron oysters. Cameron's is a business that not only breeds oysters for sale but also operates one of the largest hatcheries in the state. This has affected their local customers as well, albeit that the biosecurity risk has been deemed such that the state government have allowed movement of oysters from the Cameron's hatchery to clean areas within the state. That is a really positive sign. In the past, 80 per cent of Australia's Pacific oyster spat has been provided out of Tasmania and at the moment the restrictions are still in place, most notably with South Australia. There are also Barilla Bay oysters; Oyster Lease No. 96; angasi oysters at Taranna; Blue Lagoon Oysters—Sue Madden and Phil Glover hosted us at their facility; Southern Cross Marine Culture, Dr Tim Pauley; and others. It was a very well-attended event.

A number of things came out of that. Indeed, the Commonwealth stands ready to assist in a number of different ways, when the industry is clear about its strategies. It really is about focusing on the future, and out of this adversity there will be the capacity to build a more resilient, more robust and more diversified industry that will be able to live with the reality of POMS being part of the industry in which they are involved. That is how the future must be. It will involve producing spat and breeding oysters that have resistant characteristics, and I believe that, with resolve and with goodwill and support from both state and Commonwealth governments, this industry can continue to thrive and be a very important sector for our state. As I say, a couple of key points came out of the briefing that I was privileged to host. I thank all of those businesses I have just mentioned for attending and for the time and the insights they provided me and senators and candidates who attended the briefing. It was about future proofing, if you will, the industry—the concept of the potential for a strategic working group comprising state, federal, industry and grower representatives, and looking at the long-term consequences for the industry and what facilities and catalysts for support are needed to rebuild a new and more robust industry with the knowledge from this experience that has been gained over the last few months, albeit a very difficult experience. We have to be cognisant that each business will need to have different strategies and the outcome has to be flexible to accommodate those different business operations where possible. There are indeed some talented people there, not least of all Dr Tim Pauley, who I am sure will be able to make worthwhile contributions to such a strategy.

The other suggestion that came out was a media campaign, or an education campaign, to encourage awareness about the fact that the consumption of those oysters that are available for sale present no concern for human beings. It is important to note that any oysters from Tasmania, or other areas of Australia, that have been impacted by POMS are as healthy and as tasty as ever. The impact that it has had on those fish—they are really just a hollowed out shell—is truly extraordinary. A lot of these people are significantly in hock to their financiers and so at this stage their lenders have been cooperative, they have been understanding and I think that that is testament to the quality of those businesses and I hope there will be an opportunity for them to continue to rebuild. An education and a media campaign can also highlight to customers and consumers that it is likely that there will be a price rise in these products in the near term. We can think about those foods that are a commodity—if you take a restaurant in Melbourne or wherever it might be, whether it is Crown Casino or somewhere else, if you think about the products that they order every week, there is seasonal fish and there are seasonal meats and different things but the staple is oysters. There is always a dozen oysters for sale at nearly every restaurant around Australia. I think there needs to be an awareness campaign about the fact that oysters may well need to be repriced as a way of supporting the industry. That is certainly not something that we would want to see those large purchasers of oysters taking advantage of. As I mentioned before, there has been a biosecurity restriction lifted for the movement of oysters around the state, and that is good news because none of the hatcheries in the state have tested positive at all to the virus. I mentioned that over 80 per cent of all Pacific oysters supplied in Australia come from my home state, and one would hope that no other restrictions are put in place by other states given that the biosecurity restriction has now been lifted.

The town of Dunalley went through bushfires in 2013 and that was indeed a tragic experience—over 30 per cent of the population left the area at that time. Already 70 people have lost their jobs in that region and we want to make sure that we can retain in the area the skills and the knowledge that those people have built up through their employment in the region. I am having conversations with Minister Hunt about specific Green Army projects that may well be able to engage those employees who have unfortunately, tragically, been put off to, for example, recover all the shells and do the clean-up work that needs to occur so we can retain them in the area and they can be the base of a new industry.

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