Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) | Hansard source

Thanks, Senator Hanson-Young. Thanks also for flagging your intention to ask this question when we crossed paths in the corridors earlier today. Just before I came to the chamber for question time, I did some further media updates with the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Julie Collins, who's doing a fantastic job leading, on behalf of the federal government, our response to the now two confirmed cases of the highly dangerous strain of H5 in Australia. People would have seen, late last week, we had the first case of that strain confirmed. Just today, we've had confirmation of the second case of H5N1.

Of course, this is a very serious matter, and we are treating it seriously. But we do need to remember that, at this point in time, we only have two confirmed cases. That's a good thing, and, of course, we want to see it stay that way. But we recognise that this poses a serious threat to wildlife in Australia and, potentially, to the agriculture sector as well. And it's because of the scale of that threat that the Albanese government has invested $113 million already in preparedness efforts to ensure that we are as well prepared as possible for an outbreak of H5N1 coming to our shores.

To some extent, it was always inevitable that this strain would reach Australian shores. We are the only continent in the world that has not yet had this strain on our shores, and it is spread primarily by migratory birds. So it's quite remarkable, in fact, that we have not had this strain hit Australian shores so far. But we are well prepared. From my department's point of view, we have already undertaken a susceptibility analysis to properly understand the species that are at most risk of being infected, and that work has informed where our funding has gone—for captive breeding programs, for planning by state governments and for a range of other preparedness work.

Senator Hanson-Young may want to take political shots at this, but I note the response from the Invasive Species Council saying that never before in history has an— (Time expired)