Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The fate of the Australian honey bee industry is in serious doubt. The honey bee industry contributes around $80 million a year directly to the Australian economy through honey and related products. The pollination industry is responsible for some $4 billion of food production each year. Nearly two-thirds of every balanced diet includes food which is produced from pollination by bees.

The federal government is putting the Australian food industry at risk by refusing to fund a program for the eradication of the Asian bee. This bee displaces native bees from their natural habitats by competing with them for floral resources. In my electorate of Maranoa, this puts a number of food-producing regions at risk, including Stanthorpe, and Chinchilla, with its melon industry.

This is one of the most serious issues affecting the Australian food industry. Yet, instead of doing something, the minister sits around like a drone, doing nothing while the busy worker bees on this side of the House are doing something to save this industry and the food resources of this nation. This is just another example of Labor’s ignorance of agriculture. I call on the minister to restore the funding to eradicate the Asian bee before it is too late. Otherwise, we will have another plague like we have seen with cane toads, which were never checked. I call on the minister not to act like a drone but to work like a worker bee. (Time expired)