Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

I congratulate the member for Canning for bringing this matter before the House today. I suspect there would be many people out there who may have seen this motion and thought it a little unusual for us to be talking in the parliament about dung beetles. That is to be expected because we have a rather dry and witty sense of humour in this country. I can understand why people would be raising the question: 'Really? Dung beetles? Is that all you have to talk about in the national parliament?' I understand that. Those of us, including all of those currently in this chamber, who have an interest in and a passion for agricultural issues will fully appreciate the relevance and importance of this debate. On that basis, I congratulate the member for Canning. I join with him in his suggestion that maybe both the federal and the state governments could do more in funding terms to ensure that we further progress this very important area of research.

I take the opportunity to congratulate the CSIRO and others, who have already been very much in this field and who, unlike most in the general community, have a very, very solid understanding of the critical nature of that work and the very good things that it can do in relation to, for example, improving our soil quality in the agriculture sector, improving nutrient levels and indeed delaying nutrient run-off from our agricultural land and all the negative impacts that can have.

I did not hear everything that the member for Canning said, unfortunately, as I was caught up in meetings. I do not know whether he mentioned flies.

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