Tuesday, 22 September 2026

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (23:42): (2822) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Agriculture, and the action that I seek is for the minister to provide funding of $1 million per annum for fruit fly management ongoing beyond June 2027 and to include representatives from Fruit Growers Victoria and Cobram & District Fruit Growers Association in the fruit fly strategic management group. Agriculture is vital to the Victorian economy. There are 5000 horticultural producers in the state employing around 11,000 people, and the fruit growing industry has a value of around $3 billion a year. The Goulburn Valley in my electorate is the food bowl of Victoria and exports produce all over Australia and around the world, but horticulture here is under threat from Queensland fruit fly, a pest that must be continually managed to keep it at bay. The Goulburn–Murray Valley fruit fly area-wide management program has been a great success, with a 60 per cent reduction in pest pressure across the wider region and up to an 83 per cent reduction in Cobram. But as Labor has gradually reduced funding for the program, pest pressure has increased, and there is now serious risk that the gains made in previous years will soon be lost.

In June this year I again pressed the government to increase funding for fruit fly management and to provide certainty by committing to the program into the future. But in reply, the minister said funding would only be available until June 2027. The minister also revealed the creation of an executive Queensland fruit fly strategic management group that includes membership from industry, local government authorities and public land managers. However, I have been contacted by industry associations who are seriously concerned about this fruit fly management group and its terms of reference. The first problem is that, despite what the minister says, key industry participants like Fruit Growers Victoria and Cobram & District Fruit Growers Association have been excluded from the proposed structure. The second problem is that the group’s terms of reference use language like ‘handover plans’, ‘transition’ and ‘closure criteria’, which suggests that the government intends to end its involvement in fruit fly management in the middle of next year and place the entire burden on commercial growers. Instead of closure, the management group should be focused on determining the best practices and strategies for long-term suppression of fruit fly and how industry and government can collaborate to manage fruit fly. Fruit flies do not only breed in commercial plantations, they breed in backyard fruit trees and in the 8 million hectares of public land owned and managed by the Victorian government. This means government should continue to play an essential role in funding and delivering fruit fly programs, and the new strategy group must include – (Time expired)