Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

My question is for the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Until last year, Australia was one of the last remaining countries to be free of Varroa destructor mite, a bug that has already devastated bee colonies in Europe, the United States and New Zealand. It's now been more than a year since the Varroa mite was first detected in Newcastle, and it is still on the move. In my state of Tasmania, honey bee products and pollination services are worth approximately $20 million per year, and this does not include bees' immense value to agriculture. Yesterday we learnt it has now reached parts of New South Wales near the Victorian border, leaving Victorian beekeepers stranded inside the 25-kilometre exclusion zone. Is the minister still confident that enough is being done to stop the spread of the Varroa mite?