Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share 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.