A decision to allow New Zealand apples into Australia will put our fruit growers at risk of disease, the NSW Nationals Senator, Fiona Nash, said. It was announced overnight that Australia lost its appeal to the World Trade Organisation to stop New Zealand apple imports. Australian fruit growers were deeply concerned Kiwi apples could introduce disease such as Fireblight. Australia must now renegotiate import protocols for New Zealand apples in line with the WTO ruling. Senator Nash said the ruling doesn’t make sense given evidence at a senate inquiry into New Zealand apple imports, which she was part of. The inquiry report states: “The (senate) committee notes that the IRA is based on an assumption that fruit infected with fire blight will be imported into Australia from New Zealand and that the protocol is intended to bring the risk of this down to an acceptable level. Dr Roberts, Principal Scientist, Biosecurity Australia, advised the committee that the IRA for apples from New Zealand establishes a performance standard of 95 per cent confidence that fruit imported from New Zealand is free of symptoms of fire blight.” It also says: “The committee sought clarification on the extent to which fire blight might be imported into Australia under the proposed protocol and the risk that the disease could establish and spread. Biosecurity Australia confirmed that fire blight can travel on a mature apple and that chlorine dips are not effective in killing fire blight in the calyx of the fruit. Biosecurity also explained that its modelling suggests that a low proportion of apples could be carrying fire blight bacteria and that there is some risk of contamination but that there was a low risk of the disease becoming established. However, Biosecurity agreed that, once established, the risk of spread of the disease is a very high probability.” “I join the Coalition’s Shadow Agriculture Minister, John Cobb, in demanding the federal government take immediate action to protect Australia’s fruit industry from the apparent risk of disease,” Senator Nash said. “It includes reinvesting in Australia’s quarantine and biosecurity capacity, not dismantling it, which Labor’s been doing through funding cuts. “Trade agreements are important but the competitiveness and livelihoods of Australian fruit growers should not be compromised.”
A decision to allow New Zealand apples into Australia will put our fruit growers at risk of disease, the NSW Nationals Senator, Fiona Nash, said.
It was announced overnight that Australia lost its appeal to the World Trade Organisation to stop New Zealand apple imports. Australian fruit growers were deeply concerned Kiwi apples could introduce disease such as Fireblight.
Australia must now renegotiate import protocols for New Zealand apples in line with the WTO ruling. Senator Nash said the ruling doesn’t make sense given evidence at a senate inquiry into New Zealand apple imports, which she was part of.
The inquiry report states: “The (senate) committee notes that the IRA is based on an assumption that fruit infected with fire blight will be imported into Australia from New Zealand and that the protocol is intended to bring the risk of this down to an acceptable level. Dr Roberts, Principal Scientist, Biosecurity Australia, advised the committee that the IRA for apples from New Zealand establishes a performance standard of 95 per cent confidence that fruit imported from New Zealand is free of symptoms of fire blight.”
It also says: “The committee sought clarification on the extent to which fire blight might be imported into Australia under the proposed protocol and the risk that the disease could establish and spread. Biosecurity Australia confirmed that fire blight can travel on a mature apple and that chlorine dips are not effective in killing fire blight in the calyx of the fruit. Biosecurity also explained that its modelling suggests that a low proportion of apples could be carrying fire blight bacteria and that there is some risk of contamination but that there was a low risk of the disease becoming established. However, Biosecurity agreed that, once established, the risk of spread of the disease is a very high probability.”
“I join the Coalition’s Shadow Agriculture Minister, John Cobb, in demanding the federal government take immediate action to protect Australia’s fruit industry from the apparent risk of disease,” Senator Nash said.
“It includes reinvesting in Australia’s quarantine and biosecurity capacity, not dismantling it, which Labor’s been doing through funding cuts.
“Trade agreements are important but the competitiveness and livelihoods of Australian fruit growers should not be compromised.”
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