Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Minister for Population. Will the minister advise the House of the recent impact of locusts on the farming sector?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

All honourable members would be familiar with the impact of drought. Many members would not be familiar with some of the impacts which happen following welcomed rain. Many of our farmers throughout Australia have been dealing with that in previous months. When I was given this job, one of my first visits was to the Plague Locust Commission at Broken Hill, where I was told that the locust problem was not so much of a problem because of the extent of drought that we had at the time but that, once rains came, it would provide a breeding ground and we could well find ourselves hit by a particularly severe plague of locusts throughout the agricultural areas along the east coast. That is precisely what happened.

In March the Plague Locust Commission was involved in aerial spraying in an area around Tibooburra—some 200,000 hectares in all. Notwithstanding that fairly major effort, there was breeding to capacity in an area around Balranald which then followed the warm weather systems, through the Riverina and into South Australia and Victoria. We are looking at damage in the order of—and there are different estimates of this—$40 million. I want to acknowledge the members of parliament from each side of the House who have been in contact with me over the break to provide me with information as to what was happening on the ground and to make sure that their concerns were being fed back to the Plague Locust Commission and its work.

For those not familiar, we are talking about something like a dark storm cloud hovering about four metres above a paddock that takes out absolutely everything. The challenge that we have had may well be nothing to the challenge that is ahead of us. The plague that we have seen has now largely left its eggs in the ground. You get a very brief window in the nymph stage when spraying can do something about the next infestation. It is expected that the nymph stage will arrive in late September to mid-October, precisely the time that many of these areas will be looking at harvest, and then we will be faced with very real problems if they do undergo spraying: what that means to the value of crops and whether the residue limits are hit.

With that in mind, we are expecting an increase in demand for funding in the order of 15 per cent at our end—that is, for the joint funding for the Plague Locust Commission. The first line of defence, when it comes to spraying at the nymph stage later this year, will be the farmers themselves, as is always the case. I would encourage any farmers to make contact with the Australian Plague Locust Commission on the toll-free number: 1800635962. While droughts, floods and fires always receive the most publicity, in terms of economic damage there is a very real risk to the harvest later this year as a result of the eggs already in the ground. I would encourage members of parliament to continue to be in touch with producers in their regions to try to make sure that the targeted effort required later this year takes place.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.