THE Western Australian Government is prepared to use State law in support of Western Australia’s apple and pear growers, who oppose Federal plans to allow the importation of apples from New Zealand.
THE Western Australian Government is prepared to use State law in support of Western Australia’s apple and pear growers, who oppose Federal plans to allow the importation of apples from New Zealand.
Federal quarantine agency Biosecurity Australia’s recent draft import risk analysis (IRA), which proposes to open Australia’s borders to Kiwi apples, has so far been met with fierce resistance from the nation’s apple and pear growers, particularly in WA.
Response to the draft IRA is due at the end of the month and both the State Government and WA Fruit Growers Association say they will oppose it.
The growers argue that the NZ apple imports will bring pests and diseases into Australia.
WA growers attribute much of the success of their $50 million industry to WA’s clean, green image, which the State’s strict Plant Diseases Act has assisted by preventing the import of any apples into WA.
WAFGA president Steve Dilley said if New Zealand imports were allowed into WA the industry would be exposed to the world’s three worst pome fruit pests and diseases – coddling moth, apple scab and fire blight.
Mr Dilley said this could result in a massive increase in chemical use and threaten the viability of many Western Australian orchards.
The WAFGA, which held protests along with apple and pear growers around Australia last week opposing the draft IRA, said BA protocols were contradicted by science in the draft IRA and science that was left out.
State Agricultural Minister Kim Chance said he had asked his Federal counterpart, Warren Truss, for WA’s individual circumstances to be assessed properly and fully consulted during the draft IRA.
Mr Chance said while there was some contention in respect of the pathway for fire blight there was no doubt of the pathway for apple scab.
WA has had an outbreak of coddling moth previously but it was eradicated at cost of $6 million.
Mr Chance said apple scab posed a big risk and it would take “a very powerful reason to put a whole industry at risk because somebody has read subject matter, that is not a scientific matter, differently from the way we read it”.
Mr Chance said, as it stood, WA would support the State’s apple and pear growers in their fight.
“If the State was unsatisfied with the final outcome on apples it is quite possible that we would leave our current prohibitions on the importation of apples from anywhere,” he said.
“That would create a difficult situation for the Commonwealth.”
While Federal laws prevail over State laws in the event of such a conflict, Mr Chance said in this case Federal laws would not necessarily be triggered because it would be hard to show that there was an actual conflict.
However, Mr Chance said blocking apple imports with State laws was only a fall-back position as it was important Biosecurity Australia’s import risk assessment process was made to work.
“The alternative management system ... is that somebody will make the decision for us, like the WTO court,” he said. “Now I don’t want that to happen because that way we lose all control.”
Producers have expressed concern that Australia’s strict quarantine laws are being sacrificed in the pursuit of global free trade.
Other Australian growers, such as banana and pig meat producers, have recently been battling IRAs in their own markets.
Two weeks ago Australian pig lobby and marketing group, Australia Pork Limited, launched legal action over a new IRA on pigmeat, which tightened quarantine but increased the number of countries from which pig meat maybe imported from three to 11.
The Federal Government denies the suggestions about the integrity of quarantine, arguing that all quarantine decisions are made at arm’s length from government and are based on science.
A BA spokesman said despite the market widening, quarantine measures were actually tightening.
WA pig and banana producers have also rejected the IRA proposals.
But Mr Chance conceded probable defeat on the pork proposal and said a banana IRA was being reassessed because part of the analysis process was flawed.
However, he added many of the same arguments made for the apple industry could be made for the banana industry and the threat posed by Moko disease, its pathway and transmissibility.
