131 Prentice Road
Orrvale
2nd July, 2011
Office of the Chief Executive
Dr Colin Grant
Biosecurity Australia
GPO Box 858 CANBERRA ACT 260
Good afternoon Colin,
Remember Pears are the first food you eat as a baby and often the last food we eat as elderly citizens due to their extreme ease of digestion and pure taste. These pears are at risk of being wiped out as an industry in Australia due to this poor decision of allowing fruit from New Zealand to come here without strict protocols to prevent Fireblight occurring.
It seems obvious to us that you are interested in the farming industry succeeding as you have shown interest in healthy food for healthy families in Australia and that is precisely my point for this letter.
But it is our- the Young Farmers- very livelihood that is being threatened by the import protocols for fruit from New Zealand relaxing, we need to protect our businesses and NOT allow Fireblight or other diseased fruit from other countries to come here to Australia. As growers of Apples and Pears in the Goulburn Valley where we live with a third generation of orchardists in our family , our son Bo, just bought the orchard next door and we demand a Parliamentary Enquiry into helping prevent fireblight and other foreign fruit diseases coming into our country.
In Victoria alone- we produce 85% of Australia’s Pears and over 30% of Australia’s apples. The Goulburn Valley fruit industry produces 400,000 tonnes of fruit per annum and the other Fruit Grower Victoria regions add another 150,000 tonnes. Our profit value added of the Goulburn Valley fruit industry was $734m in a study completed in 2000 and has continued production growth since that time. The Gross Victorian Profit value combined of Fruit Grower Victoria members exceeds $1 billion and is an essential contributor to regional growth in Victoria and in marketed produce throughout Australia and overseas.
We urge you to allow a Parliamentary committee with other like minded members such as the Shadow Agricultural Minister John Cobb and Hon Dr Sharman Stone and others who have some common sense and overturn the decisions to bring fresh fruit and Vegs into Australia.
Once fire blight has been established it has never been eradicated from any country. It is the horticultural equivalent of the cane toad. The only known spray in Australia to limit the damage of fire blight is the antibiotic spray streptomycin—a banned spray at present here in Australia.
Any new import arrangements with New Zealand must apply the highest inspection and monitoring standards to ensure Australia remains disease given the significant risk to our disease- and pest-free status, I regard this as an entirely reasonable request to meet the
needs to keep the Australian apple and pear industry Fireblight free. The industry and the Australian community are entitled to expect such a commitment from government.
We would like someone to be held responsible for the disease when the fireblight occurs.-
I say when because this is not- if- it is -when- every country in the world that has fireblight cannot get rid of it.
Australia is the only continent that has no Fireblight- Why is this so????? (Remember Julius Sumner Miller?)
We need some compensation set up to support those of us who will choose to leave the industry due to fireblight affecting our apples and destroying our pears.
The APVMA Aust Pesticides and Veterinary Medicine Authority - Does not allow the use of Streptomycin on fruit or vegetables in Australia as there is evidence of "Superbugs" being caused by digestion of Antibiotics in food. eg
Prof. Mary Barton from school of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences Uni of Sth Australia who writes: Antibiotic resistance in animal isolates of bacteria is a critical issue. Firstly there is the issue of resistance in animal pathogens and secondly resistance in zoonotic bacteria and transfer of resistance determinants from animal isolates (often commensals) to human pathogens via the food chain or from direct contact. In addition, antibiotic resistance genes are widely distributed in animals, humans and the environment. In recent years there has been much pressure to remove antimicrobial growth promoters from the market and to restrict the range of antibiotics used in animals to those not regarded as important in human medicine.
Here is an article from WA Labor member after our visit to Canberra for Apple Day 1st June, 2011 with APAL- Apple and Pear Australia to help politicians like yourself be more aware of the affect that imports will have.
Statement by Melissa Parke, Member for Fremantle (WA, Labor) made in Parliament yesterday (Hansard,1 June 2011)
Quarantine
Ms PARKE (Fremantle) (13:56): The Parke family are fourth generation fruit growers in Donnybrook in the south-west of Western Australia. My great-grandfather John Stanley Parke was the first person to export Granny Smith apples and he did so in 1922 through the port of Fremantle. I grew up on the apple orchard that my dad, George Parke, still operates today. So it was natural that I would attend an event this morning held by the Australian apple and pear industry. The issue of overwhelming concern to the growers is in relation to the prospective importation of apples from New Zealand and the recent announcement by Biosecurity Australia that standard orchard practices in New Zealand are to be regarded as a sufficient quarantine standard when it comes to protecting the Australian industry from the possible transmission of pests and diseases that New Zealand has but Australia does not. By far the worst is the bacterial disease fire blight, which is fatal to pear trees and severely impacts on apples. My father has told me that the accidental introduction of fire blight to Italy some years ago wiped out 14,000 hectares of pears in a few years.
(Wednesday, 1 June 2011 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 45 CHAMBER)
The public don’t want us to use antibiotic sprays on our fruit and we don’t want to spray it> I have heard that Biosecurity Australia have emergency protocols in place when there is an outbreak- maybe these override legislation and allow use of Streptomycin but as yet it is not available for us to use to protect our crops.
This is surely an admission of guilt on the part of the Govt that they know fireblight will occur here and they dont care for the long term drastic effect it will have on our industry.
The BEE Industry are also very concerned about this as they have the threat of loosing their bees, any outbreak would potentially disseminate the livelihood hundreds of commercial beekeepers. Honey bees are a major vector for Fireblight bacteria spores. Just as pollen grains adhere to their hairy bodies, so too do the Fireblight spores, to be spread from flower to flower, orchard to orchard, or bee to bee. There is not possiblility of separating the bees infected with the bacteria as they are hired by orchardists to pollinated the crops at flowering time- JUST WHEN the Fireblight spores are thriving and the orchardist needs to spray. The only outcome is to BURN the Bees colonies. Not a pleasant task.
There is a Fireblight Contingency Plan which was developed by the Bee Industry prior to the 1997 scare. This plan calls for the destruction of all Bees in any hives in any declared Fireblight quarantine area.
In the possible fireblight Zones there are
7,000 hives in the Goulburn Valley Region
5,000 in the Outer Melbourne Region
4,500 in the Murray Valley region
1,000 + in the Harcourt Valley
300+ in the Bacchus Marsh region plus orchards further down into Gippsland as well as other smaller orchard areas.
We as orchardists deal with the pest and disease of fruit every day and we are aware of the risk that is taken if we let fireblight into the county. This new rule totally disregards the experience and knowledge of the orchardist, by allowing New Zealand to be responsible for checking their own “standard Orchard Practices” and then allowing their fruit to come here .This is like giving the Devil the keys to the Blood Bank, I urge you not to support this. Looking forward to hearing some action on these issues,
Kind regards
Maurice and Rien Silverstein