The Nationals leader and Member for Murray Plains, Peter Walsh, says he is increasingly concerned at the ongoing breakdown of the state’s defences against a rampant fruit fly population.
Mr Walsh says at a time when we should be ramping up the fight against this scourge of the horticulture industry, the system in Victoria is failing, and failing badly.
He says he is “appalled” at the number of frontline controls points he has recently driven past which are “a complete mess”.
“I stopped at the control point on the Murray Valley Highway near Kerang the other day and it looked like someone’s dumped rubbish, not a vital Agriculture Victoria frontline defence,” Mr Walsh explains.
“The sign was almost unreadable, two of the three bins were tipped over and the only one still standing no longer had a flap at the top – it was a disgrace,” he says.
“On one hand you have the government’s army of spin doctors pumping out announcements and releases about everyone sticking to the rules to save the state’s $3 billion horticulture industry and on the other you have a Labor government department without the funding or resources to maintain even the most basic precautions.
“Victoria’s agricultural producers are feeding this state, and much of the country, and they deserve some return on the massive taxes and surcharges and levies they are slugged with to help them keep doing that job.”
Mr Walsh says five months ago a ‘minor’ fruit fly outbreak in the Virginia food bowl north of Adelaide had a crippling effect on producers there and an almost immediate knock effect in prices and supplies across the country.
He says in 2023 the table grape industry in the Sunraysia was pummeled by fruit fly.
“And all we can get from the government is more feel-good messaging and an avalanche of reports, commentaries and spin from a bloated bureaucracy that is robbing agriculture of the funding, staffing and resources so desperately needed in the field,” Mr Walsh adds.
“After first stopping at the Kerang site I have driven past it three times since then and the only change I saw on my most recent trip was the third standing bin had also been knocked over.
“Agriculture and consumers already struggling with the cost of living and the nation’s highest state debt level are going to pay a very serious price because the Allan Labor government cannot manage the economy and cannot control its outrageous budget overruns on pointless projects in Melbourne.”
CAPTION:
The Nationals leader and Member for Murray Plains, Peter Walsh, at a Kerang fruit fly control point. He says this shambles is a classic example of the Allan Labor government’s disdain for the challenges facing rural and regional Victoria and are doing nothing to help protect the state’s $3 billion horticulture industry.
