From: GA & BL Finger PL [gbfinger3@iprimus.com.au]
Sent: Monday, 4 July 2011 9:42 AM
To: BA - Plant Biosecurity Contact
Subject: Fwd: New Zealand Apples
-------- Original Message -------
Subject: New Zealand Apples
Date: Mon, 04 Jul2011 09:36:35 +1000
From: GA & BL Finger PL <gbfinger3@iprimus.com.au>
To: senator.ludwig@aph.gov.au
Senator Ludwig
Dear Sir
I am writing to you in protest regarding the very weak conditions allowing apples to be imported into Australia. I cannot believe that our government departments could be so naive to allow imports of apples under such weak conditions.
This is "the foot and mouth disease" of the fruit industry, and has the potential to decimate the pear industry and have an enormous impact on apples.
Given our climate is so conducive to the disease, we would have little chance of containing ANY outbreak let alone controlling it, remembering we have No control measures available to us.
We are a small family business growing both apples and pears, but we provide employment for many casual people over the year.
Our business would not survive a major outbreak.
It is obvious that the industry is primarily a rural industry, so the impact on rural employment would be catastrophic.
Although this would not affect our industry, many plants in our gardens both public and private are very susceptible to this disease.
Finally bearing in mind we would rather not have to deal with imports, we understand the need to allow access to them, but allow it in a way that safeguards our industry and businesses as welL
regards
Graeme,Betty and Brad Finger.
Disclaimer:
In order to meet online accessibility requirements, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry conforms to mandated government requirements. Reasonable attempts have been made to provide accessible documents; however, this is not always possible (e.g. in the case of a handwritten or scanned document). While all care is taken to ensure the content is replicated correctly, the original document should be considered the authoritative version. Please contact the department if you require assistance or visit the Australian Government Information Management Office’s website for more information about accessibility.