Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—(a) notes that:(i) the incursion of Apis cerana, the Asian honey bee, was discovered in May 2007 near Cairns, Queensland,(ii) Apis cerana has the capacity to devastate the native bee and commercial honey bee populations in Australia, putting at risk:(A) $4 billion worth of agricultural produce pollinated by the commercial honey bee, as Apis cerana is incapable of domestication, leaving Australian agriculture reliant on incidental pollination, and(B) the $80 million Australian honey industry,(iii) Apis cerana:(A) is a carrier of the varroa mite, another major threat to Australia’s bee populations and the honey industry,(B) has the potential to become a pest as virulent and damaging to the Australian environment as the rabbit, cane toad andEuropean wasp, and(C) poses a major threat to biodiversity through negative impacts on native flora and fauna, and(iv) the incursion of Apis cerana remains contained in a radius of approximately 50 to 55km of Cairns; and(b) calls on the Government to develop, coordinate and implement a program to eradicate Apis cerana from Australia.

David Feeney (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—The government opposes Senator Colbeck’s motion on the basis that the motion is factually incorrect. The Asian Honey Bee National Management Group has found that eradication of the Asian honey bee is no longer technically feasible. Responsibility for the eradication or management of pests is not solely a federal responsibility, but rather a shared responsibility with the state and territory governments and the industries that benefit from any management actions. A cooperative approach between the states and territories, Commonwealth government and impacted industries is the only way to effectively manage this pest. The government is working collaboratively with state and territory governments and the Australian honey industry and with industries reliant on pollination to develop, coordinate and implement a strategy to manage the Asian honey bee.

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I am really very disappointed in the government’s attitude towards this issue. The minister’s office rang my office last week to talk about dealing with this as an issue. The issues that they raised with me had to do with the size of the honey industry and the size of the pollination sector impacted by the pest. There was no discussion at all, as part of that process, about the eradication of the Asian bee. To characterise my motion as factually incorrect I find, in that context, quite disappointing and I reject it.

The reality is that the government have not looked at the science in relation to this. They did not even discuss with the experts, the CSIRO, the issue of eradication. I have had a number of representations made to me since this motion became public about the eradication of the Asian bee. I think the government’s attitude to this is quite disappointing. They are hiding behind, I think, bureaucracy and technicality. If the government genuinely wanted to deal with this issue they could do it. All they need to do is allocate some resource. Yes, there is a process for eradication that is jointly managed by the states and the Commonwealth, and it is true that some of the states involved in it do not want to continue funding the process. If the government wanted to make an allocation of some resource towards the eradication of the Asian bee they could do it. It is only a matter of willingness; that is all that is required. For the government to characterise my motion as factually incorrect, I reject completely. I would urge them to work with the bee industry and with the agricultural sector—and we can debate the size of the impact of the Asian bee on that sector to our heart’s content—as there is the capacity to deal with this. (Time expired)

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Acting Deputy President, I seek leave to make a short statement.

Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian Greens support this motion and we support greater effort to eradicate the Asian honey bee. It is something that we may well come to regret if we do not increase the effort nationally, as Senator Colbeck has said, to eradicate this pest before it extends way beyond the limits, which the motion states, of the vicinity of Cairns. Repeatedly in this nation we see pests being introduced and establishing, and it is costing a lot of money to attempt to eradicate them with the effort then being given up. The on-flowing cost to agriculture, to the economy, to wellbeing and to the biodiversity of this country is enormous and sometimes incalculable. It is something about which the Greens believe there should be a far greater national sense of protection, allocation of funding and resistance to this ongoing invasion. We are beyond the period where invasions were deliberately produced as with the cane toad. We ought to be now able, with the much greater surveillance we have in the year 2011, to take on a pest like this and, with much greater national resources, ensure that every possibility to eradicate it is undertaken. We support the motion.

Question agreed to.