David Bushby (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Chair of the Rural Affairs and Transport References Committee, I present the report of the committee on the science underpinning the inability to eradicate the Asian honey bee, together with the Hansard record of proceedings and documents presented to the committee.

Ordered that the report be printed.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know Senator Milne, who authored some important recommendations to this report, also wishes to speak to it, so I will not use all of the time available to me. This report, on what may seem to senators and the public to be a less important matter than some that come before this chamber, is one which has significant bearing, ultimately, on Australia's ability to produce food that is reliant upon bees for pollination.

The report indicates that the Asian honey bee—not native to Australia but the subject of a relatively recent incursion into North Queensland—has the ability, amongst other things, to carry a mite known as the varroa mite, which has progressively spread around the world. In fact, the only country that does not have this mite is Australia. Members of the committee who travelled to New Zealand two weeks ago had the benefit of receiving a briefing from apiculture experts there and about the spread of the varroa mite there. New Zealand has a number of horticulture enterprises—for example, kiwifruit—that rely on bees for pollination. They rely upon beehives run by the honey industry, which is also an industry for pollination, to keep the industry pollinated and successful. To deal with varroa mite they use pyrethroid strips in the hives to kill-off the mite. The unfortunate problem is that, over time, resistance to the pyrethroid is developed, as is experienced in other jurisdictions. If there is resistance to the substances to treat varroa mites, the fear is that there may not be an easily available alternative.

In the absence of those hives, the New Zealand industries will not produce the fruit that they depend upon. Australia, of course, is reliant upon native bees predominantly for pollination. We would not be able to protect those populations of native bees in the way that domesticated hives, if I can call them that, are protected. If we were to experience an incursion of varroa mite, we would have severe problems for industries that depend on bees for pollination. When people think about bees they do not think about the consequences for food production in this country. It is a problem around the world.

The committee was very concerned about the approach taken by the states and the Commonwealth on potential eradication of the Asian honey bee. We noted that there was a report from a Victorian scientist associated with the Victorian government. When we sought to test the view of that scientist, the Victorian government would not make the scientist available to the committee to examine that view. The situation remains, as is reported in the report, that the decision of the panel, which was established to determine whether the bees were eradicable, was that the incursion of bees is not eradicable. The committee does not necessarily accept that view; we note that there is still scope for a view that the Asian honey bee incursion is eradicable. The committee in the future will no doubt continue to pursue the quest for a program of eradication if evidence emerges which suggests that matter should be revisited.

There are more things that I would like to say about this matter, but I want to thank the secretariat and the members of the committee for the way that they have pursued this matter. I also want to thank the department for responding in difficult proceedings to questions to assist the committee in this matter. I thank them for their assistance and the committee secretariat for the work that they have done on this—another of their fine efforts to report.

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to comment on the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport in relation to the Asian honey bee. This is a reference that I made to that committee because of the high level of concern that I had, and largely because of the fantastic lobbying effort of the Australian honey bee association throughout Australia, bringing to the attention of senators on all sides of politics the very real concerns they expressed for not only apiarists and honey production but also about impacts on biodiversity and pollination.

In making these remarks I would also like to acknowledge the work of Senator O'Brien in the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee over a long period of time. His contribution today demonstrates the genuine concern he has around the whole range of rural and regional issues. I think it is important that the Senate acknowledge that contribution.

In speaking about the incursion of the Asian honey bee, as Senator O'Brien has just said, the reason I moved for this reference was the concern across the parliament, across all parties, that the state governments had been fast to run away from an eradication program—largely, I believe, because of the advice that the Asian honey bee would not spread beyond the tropics. I have no doubt that some state governments decided to withdraw support and save the money that they would have had to put into the program, because they did not believe that the Asian honey bee would affect them.

That highlights one of the faults of the process here. There was not adequate consultation with the CSIRO, including Dr Denis Anderson, who is the national expert on the Asian honey bee. He has studied this for 20 years at the CSIRO, and you would have thought he would be the first person brought in and extensively consulted. We found that the dubious explanation for why he was left off receiving notification for meetings and so on was that his email address had changed, bounced or been left off a list. I find that an unacceptable explanation for something this serious.

One of the recommendations of the committee, which we managed to have incorporated in the report, is that when there is an incursion of a disease, a pest or a weed the consultation occur beyond the depart­ment and go to the scientific and other relevant experts in the field—whatever that field might be—to make sure we have an assessment of the impact not only on agricultural production but on biodiversity. As was just highlighted, if you lose your native bees in this circumstance then you lose pollination but also, if you have an incursion of the Asian honey bee, the displacement of native bees means a reduction in food for our nectar-feeding bats and birds, for example. So there can be a large impact on Australia's biodiversity.

I am disappointed to say that the representative of the department of the environment, who was an observer at some of these meetings, is reported to have said nothing in the course of the discussions about impacts of the Asian honey bee. I find that unacceptable. So the recommendation is that in future the consultation be with experts both inside and outside the government and with the department of the environment but also that written reports are made so that there is some effort to analyse the impacts of an incursion such as this.

I am very pleased that the apiarists across the country came here and had a very well-organised information booth set up on the front lawns here. They have now, through voluntary effort, gone to Cairns. The beekeepers are putting in a huge effort in time and commitment to try and help with the eradication. Even though it is now a containment strategy, we are getting an effort at this point to establish whether or not the bee can be eradicated. That is what we should have been doing from day one—making a major effort to establish that. I am hopeful that we will establish that eradication is possible with baiting and other programs.

I want to congratulate the beekeepers, the community and the committee. I think we have really made good progress on this. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.