Sharman Stone MP

 

“Fire Blight is the worst night mare for everyone growing apples and pears any where in the world; it kills pears and seriously maims apples.” Dr Sharman Stone said.

 

“Miraculously, in Australia, we have managed to avoid the disease for nearly 100 years. Pome fruit trees in New Zealand were struck down by the introduction of imported plant material probably from the United States in the early 1920’s.

 

“What country in the world would deliberately expose its disease free orchards to these deadly plant bacteria? Yet here we are standing in the midst of most of Australia’s pear trees. Northern Victoria grows over 80% of pears and most of Australia’s apple production. Our disease free apples have supplied domestic and export markets for generations, and have been the backbone of fruit manufacturing. However import rules or protocols the protocols proposed by the Gillard Government for the diseased New Zealand apple industry are so weak they are not likely to reduce the Fire Blight risk at all.

 

“Is it incompetence?

“Is there now too much debt to pay Bio security to do the right job?

“Is it a ‘no care’ attitude from the Gillard Government that leaves us with a door flung open and virtually no special rules in place to protect us from Fire Blight?

 

“In Northern Victoria, we have the perfect conditions for the disease to establish and spread. We have the gentle Mediterranean climate that allows the bacteria to carry on the breeze, drift in raindrops and be carried by bees.

 

“In New Zealand, the best friend of orchardists is chainsaws. As the disease moves from apple tree to apple tree, all the primary producer can do is cut off limbs to try to prevent the spread. The pear trees are killed.

 

“Prime Minister Gillard stood up in the New Zealand Parliament and promised them that she would be the one who flings open the gates for apples to be brought into Australia. She received a standing ovation

 

Again you have to ask:

 

“Why was that more important than directing the Minister for Agriculture Joe Ludwig to put proper import protocols in place?

“Was she ignorant?

“Does she not care at all?

“Or was she quietly aware that putting decent protocols in place would be a bigger task for Bio security, than letting New Zealanders use their own domestic practices when they export the apples to Australia?

“We have fought huge battles before.

“We stopped the pipeline.

“We continue to battle to stop the Gillard Government taking more of our water.

 

“We have to fight now to get this government to understand that strong protocols are what the World Trade Organisation expects; it is what the New Zealanders expected until they had the spectre of our Prime Minister implying that Australian apple orchard growers were to be sacrificed, so she could be a hero in their parliament.

 

“Droughts won’t kill us, floods can’t keep us down, but bad Government policy has the potential to wipe us out.