Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the report The future of the beekeeping and pollination service industries in Australia and to support the recommendations in that report. A number of key concerns were raised by the beekeeping industry during our inquiry, which made me realise how important the beekeeping industry is to Australia not just because many people love to eat the wonderful honey products but also because of the pollination services bees provide. There is a very real threat from the Varroa mite, which is endemic in bees in most other places around the world. So far we have managed to keep it out of Australia. It is very important that we continue to maintain our biosecurity measures with respect to our Australian beekeepers because if we had an incursion of the Varroa mite into Australia, were it to take out all of our native bee population we would not have enough bee colonies to enable cross pollination activities.

The industry faces a number of other serious challenges, including the use of agricultural chemicals. Farmers need to understand how very detrimental chemicals can be to kept bee colonies, particularly some of the neonicotinoids used on horticultural products. There is also the issue of spray drift. The chemical industry needs to ensure that chemicals are clearly labelled, so that users understand the potential detrimental effect on bee colonies. Beekeepers require access to huge tracts of land and to a wide variety of native species to ensure quality and consistency of their product. Many of our state governments have locked beekeepers out of national parks, denying them access to that resource, one they desperately need.

Finally, the bee inquiry once again brought up the hoary old chestnut of labelling. We saw some very tragic examples of a lack of truth in labelling. We saw imported honey coming into Australia clearly dishonestly marked as Australia honey by putting pictures of the Australian continent and an outline of the map of Australia on a product which was merely sugar syrup which had been force fed to bees in foreign countries and then imported as Australian honey. Despite the fact that some honey was labelled 'Made in Australia', it was only bottled in Australia.

The bee industry faces many challenges. We can assist with some of those challenges, particularly biosecurity and keeping our clean industry pest and disease free. We need to make sure there is truth in labelling so that our honey producers are not damaged. We also need to understand the huge add-on benefit gained from pollination by our bee populations. It was a fantastic inquiry. I support the recommendations of the report.