Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that dung beetles:

(a ) provide an important service to Australia's agricultural sector; and

(b ) act as a biological solution that assists in fly control and enhances livestock health;

(2) the work of dung beetles acts to enhance and improve the nutrients in soil, leading to natural fertilisation and reducing nutrient runoff;

(3) greater recognition by industry of the beetles' importance may lead to further widespread adoption;

(4) investigation and research into the introduction of two new species of beetles from France and Spain may provide opportunities to expand the beneficial impacts of dung beetles by increased activity during the spring months, and this could bridge the existing activity gap prior to the activity of native beetles in the summer months; and

(5) agricultural research and development organisations could provide important support in researching the benefits and quarantine implications associated with importing these two new species.

I rise to speak on a matter of great importance and significance to this country's agricultural sector and the economy generally—dung beetles. I have made a number of speeches in this House over a number of years on this topic, and it is important to do so again because there has been a considerable amount of inaction since those speeches. The dung beetle is a magnificent insect that provides an important service to our agricultural industry. Dung beetles, as the name suggests, bury dung deposited on open farm and fringe urban areas. The results of this activity have proved time and again why the dung beetle is such an important part of our ecosystem. Their importance could be so much more, as I will explain as I go.

Approximately half a million tonnes of cow dung is dropped by cattle each year. Dung beetles take this dung and bury it deep in the ground, the results of which are improved nutrient levels of soil; reduced soil compaction; deeper topsoil, to a depth of over 300 millimetres; a habitat and food supply for earthworms; aeration of soil; increased rain infiltration and storage; increased soil penetration of plant root systems, which then reduces the effect of soil salinity and acidity; reduced run-off into rivers and dams of fertilisers and soil agents; storage of carbon dioxide in the ground, thereby reducing emissions—in other words, it ticks the box on climate change; and removal of breeding grounds for flies within 24 to 72 hours, thereby drastically reducing fly populations by up to 99 per cent. I repeat: a 99 per cent reduction in fly populations. This list goes on. These wonderful insects are an ecological, environmental and agricultural bonanza.

Another benefit of the dung beetle activity is the recycling of phosphorus from animal dung back into the soil. For those who do not know, Australia is the most phosphorus-deficient continent in the world. As you know, we import a huge amount of phosphate rock from such places as Christmas Island, Nauru and elsewhere. This is at great financial cost to Australia and a significant environmental cost to the rest of the world. As with most resources, this supply of phosphate is not infinite. By breeding dung beetles, we can harness their ability to bury phosphate into the soil, thereby ruling out the need to import so much of this fertiliser.

As my interest in the dung beetle has grown, I have had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Mr John Feehan, who some of you may know as the Dung Beetle Expert. John is a retired CSIRO scientist—an entomologist—who was directly involved in the CSIRO's world-first dung-beetle-breeding program for 31 years. Nowadays John is based in Canberra, from which he operates the company called Soilcam, a company that can claim to have the largest and most efficient redistribution of dung beetles to be found anywhere in our universe. During a conversation with John last week, he informed me that the bush fly has just arrived in Canberra a whole two months after it normally does. The reason for this late arrival is solely attributed to John and his extraordinary work with dung beetles in this area.

The reason I stand here today to talk about dung beetles is not just to outline their outstanding contribution to Australia's agricultural industry; it is to raise the profile of the dung beetle and to express to my fellow parliamentarians the need for funding to further distribute dung beetle species across Australia. My colleague here the member for Forrest, Nola Marino, knows only too well the importance of dung beetles to her electorate of Forrest, and I thank her for her support on this matter today. For the member for Forrest, bush flies are a significant problem affecting not only the agricultural industry in her electorate but also the tourism industry in the South West of Western Australia—and, I say, elsewhere in Australia; it is certainly not confined to that part of Australia.

Whilst we have dung beetle species to combat bush flies in those summer months, it is in the spring months that we see a shortfall in the dung beetles in Western Australia. We know that there are a whole range of dung beetle species which would satisfy that early spring need for an alternative beetle to take up its life cycle and activity in that time frame.

Another industry which the dung beetle can provide a significant benefit to is the horticultural industry. The fact that dung beetles have the ability to transport dung to areas where it is not originally deposited illustrates the dung beetle's potential to assist in the renovation of horticultural soils. Research of this kind is explored in Bernard Doube's and Tim Marshall's guide to dung beetles, entitled Dung Down Under. In this book they identify the horticultural root zones, such as those found in vineyards and orchards, that are highly compacted and nutrient poor and suffer poor aeration. While the addition of mulch has improved the nutrient quality of soil at the surface, it also encourages roots to head upwards, towards the nutrient, where they can be exposed. The addition of dung beetles to horticultural soils encourages roots to follow the path of the dung beetles to find soil that is aerated and nutrients that have been buried with the dung.

Such an experiment was conducted by the authors at a winery in Eden Valley in South Australia. After the addition of dung from a dairy farm to the vineyard's soil, it was proven that dung beetles not only increased the moisture content of the soil but also reduced its compaction. Furthermore, and just as importantly, the study found that the addition of dung beetles has no negative effect on the quality of grapes or wine. In fact, it has a positive effect. In my electorate of Canning, there are many orchards, not just vineyards, that could benefit and be strengthened by the presence of dung beetles.

There are two new species of dung beetle which originate in France and Spain that are suited to a slightly cooler climate, much like that of Western Australia's spring. As an aside, for the benefit of the House I would like to note that the risk of importing dung beetles is little to none. There is no risk of an uncontrolled pest as dung beetles require dung for both food and breeding purposes. Therefore, if there is no dung they perish. In addition, strict quarantine conditions ensure no foreign diseases are accidentally introduced to Australia. Any suggestion to the contrary is just a misleading red herring. To that point, I sat down with the previous agricultural minister in the former Labor government, Tony Burke, the member for Watson, and begged him to take this issue on board. Of course, the distraction was quarantine et cetera—there needed to be $1 million spent by the previous government on this area. They could have done that, as could state governments and our government now.

There is one problem, however. The limited availability of affordable programs for Western Australia does not allow for research, rearing or distribution of these two new species in our state. I know the Department of Agriculture and Food in Western Australia, DAFWA, released the French beetle Onthophagus vacca at a number of sites in Kojonup in August this year with the help of the CSIRO. This release occurred after two years of research by DAFWA, but even this does not guarantee the beetle colony will survive. In fact, past releases have been unsuccessful. However, I do note that DAFWA's climate matching technology is more advanced this time. When they did it last time, they wasted their money. The dung beetles died because they did not release them in the right time frame. Western Australia needs to get its act together in terms of releasing dung beetles. They will be just wasting their money if they do not do it scientifically. In addition to large-scale state managed projects, I would hope that Western Australia could receive funding for smaller scale projects.

A constituent and an entomologist of Canning, Mr John Allen, has approached me on this very topic. He has a small-scale dung beetle project at Coodanup Community College and he is unable to expand due to a lack of funding. He tells me $1 million would be enough. I say to the state agricultural minister, Mr Ken Baston: 'You've got skin in the game in terms of agriculture. You've been a station owner. You talk a lot about wanting to do things for the agricultural economy. How about coming up with $1 million for Mr John Allen and his associates to breed dung beetles specifically designed for the right time and seasons in Western Australia?' I say to Barnaby Joyce: 'Do the same thing. How about providing the minimal amount of money at a federal level?' We talk about $1 million, probably not much more, to expand this incredible program that will benefit all those involved all around Australia in terms of making this a marvellous, low-cost agricultural initiative that will tick all the boxes on the environment, agriculture and a sustainable economy. I commend this motion to the House.

See this speech in context