Justine Keay (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Only two years ago the Tasmanian devil was chosen as the state's official animal emblem. I was going to bring a Tassie devil in—not a real one, of course; maybe a toy one. For those who may not know what a Tasmanian devil looks like, I have with me a likeness of one that is at the Tama zoo in Tokyo. It is important that these devils—two females, Maydena and Murdunna—are in the Tama zoo in Tokyo as they are part of an education and awareness program to save the Tasmanian devils. This is important because it is estimated that 80 per cent of the wild devil population has been wiped out by the deadly and infectious devil facial tumour disease since it was first identified in populations in 1996.

It is thanks to many hours of work put in by the community and all levels of government that we are beginning, hopefully, to find a cure for these magnificent creatures. From the establishment of insurance populations protecting isolated devils to the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program, there has been widespread and monumental effort to address this issue. The fight for the Tasmanian devil, which is now listed as endangered, is as important as ever. Earlier this month, we heard about an international study involving multiple institutions over six years which has shown that immunotherapy can cure Tasmanian devils of this deadly disease, and that is fantastic news for Tasmanians.

Led by the University of Tasmania's Menzies Institute for Medical Research, with input from the School of Medicine, this latest finding has involved the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and the universities of Sydney, Southampton, Southern Denmark and Cambridge. This great discovery has been described as a 'eureka moment' by Menzies research team leader, Professor Greg Woods. He said:

Building a good understanding of the devil's immune system, which goes hand in hand with the development of a vaccine, involves years of painstaking laboratory work. The process is incremental, but with each step scientists are closing in on the disease. This breakthrough is the next step on from work published in 2015 that showed that the devil's immune system was capable of mounting an immune response to DFTD.

This research could lead to the development of a vaccine and ultimately help in the devil's survival. This is an extremely exciting development and one that the whole Tasmanian community will no doubt be watching very closely. I look forward to updating the House when we have more to say about saving the devils.