Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The Victorian Fisheries Authority has a very simple message for state governments across Australia and the federal government: it is time to get serious about carp.

It is time for less talk and more action to control this insidious invasive species. European carp are destroying our waterways. They are killing native species. They are causing enormous social, economic and environmental losses, and the impact on recreational fishing is extremely difficult to evaluate but certainly enormous in terms of lost opportunities for our regional communities. The Victorian Fisheries Authority has advised me that there's enough carp in Australia today to fill the MCG three and a half times over. Carp, at times, can amount to 90 per cent of the fish biomass in some of our waters. There've been thousands of pages of scientific research and investigation into how we manage carp and detailed reports on different approaches that are available to us, but the time for talk is over.

It's time for more action in relation to European carp. In Gippsland, carp are actually outcompeting native species in our rivers and our Ramsar listed Gippsland Lakes. They're destroying the water quality and the biodiversity of our wetland. Our wetlands are overrun with carp, and our community wants to see more action. People are simply frustrated by the delays. There is now a paralysis by analysis. The cost of inaction is enormous, and there has to be an acceptable level of risk when it comes to taking action. I think the acceptable level of risk has been reached in terms of the research and the information we already have available to us.

The CSIRO has made it clear in relation to the potential release of the herpes virus to have an impact on the carp population. CSIRO researchers found that the virus 'does kill Australian pest carps, and it kills them quickly'. Current research has also shown that the virus does not develop in native Australian species of fish. That's important because the CSIRO is independent, and it has disproved what is perhaps one of the major concerns in relation to whether the virus would then transfer to other native Australian fish. CSIRO research shows very clearly that it kills them quickly, and the current research has also shown the virus does not develop in native Australian species of fish.

Carp represent, as I said, about 90 per cent of the total fish biomass in the Murray-Darling Basin. That's around 350 million carp. As I said, carp are degrading river health. They're ruining water quality. They're eroding banks. They're removing vegetation. They're outcompeting and preying on juvenile native fish. They're increasing algae blooms and reducing biodiversity. Carp impact 22 species, many of which are rare and endangered. I've seen in my own electorate where the carp, burrowing into the bank, undermines the bank and you end up with red gum trees, which are hundreds of years old, falling into rivers in our community.

The 2025 Murray-Darling Basin audit shows that carp are the key ecological pressure limiting native fish recovery. If we can reduce the biomass of the carp to a level where the native species can predate on the juvenile carp, we can turn the balance in this debate and get some great environmental outcomes across our nation. The impacts of and the lack of action on carp is the key issue of concern raised by recreational fishers in my state of Victoria and, I'd imagine, right across the nation. The important thing to note here is that there is a way forward, there is a plan, and there's been an enormous amount of work done on this invasive species.

Australia's been researching carp biocontrol for 49 years now. For the last 20 years, the carp herpes virus has been subject to an enormous amount of consideration, culminating in the National Carp Control Plan of 2022. The department has commissioned further research on the carp virus with no clear timelines on if and when a decision will be made about the use of the virus. The VFA—the Victorian Fisheries Authority—is recommending trials to get the virus out in the waterways to judge the impact. I support them in their work. We need to see more action. We need to see more boots on the ground doing practical environmental work and fewer suits in our cities making excuses when it comes to these natural resource management issues. I agree entirely with Victorian Fisheries Authority's request of the government, both state and federal. Let's get serious about carp.

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