Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

I have been waiting 10 months, Senator Macdonald—through you, Mr President. I have been waiting 10 months. It is great to get a question about abalone and I have come well prepared. Abalone disease has had a significant impact on abalone farms as well as the abalone fisheries in Victoria. Unfortunately, there is now confirmation of this condition in Tasmania.

On Tuesday, 9 September, the Tasmanian government notified the federal department about a suspect case of the abalone virus in a processing plant in the state’s south, so notification has been received by the federal department. The disease was confirmed by further testing on Wednesday, 10 September. The origins of the disease in Tasmania are unknown, and the Tasmanian government is investigating the incident to try and determine how the disease has infected the abalone in Tasmania. The processing plant where the disease has been detected is being monitored. It has been placed under some abalone movement restrictions. The Tasmanian government is also targeting surveillance and sampling from wild fisheries to see if there are any signs of the disease in this area. To date there have been no signs of the disease in the wild despite intensive monitoring in recent months.

Obviously what has occurred in Tasmania, if we look at what has happened in Victoria, has potentially very, very serious implications for the future of the abalone fishery in my home state of Tasmania, where I understand the abalone fishery is worth at least $100 million in production. For example, exports of farmed and wild harvest abalone in 2006-07—that is the time period for which I have the latest estimates—were valued at some $247 million. I am happy to provide an update of the value in Tasmania specifically, but it is a very, very substantial industry in my home state of Tasmania. Abalone, I think, is the major fishery by value of production, so it is a very, very serious issue to have had this virus discovered in abalone. I do not know whether any senators have seen the pictures of the consequences of this, but it results in a shrivelling-up of the meat of the abalone. It makes it inedible and therefore obviously— (Time expired)