Chapter 1
Introduction
Inquiry terms of reference and interim report
1.1
On 22 March 2011, the Senate referred the following matter to the Senate Rural
Affairs and Transport References Committee for inquiry and report by
8 April 2011:
(a) the science underpinning the
technical assumption that Apis cerana, the Asian honey bee, cannot be
eradicated in Australia;
(b) the science underpinning the
assumption that the Asian honey bee will not spread throughout Australia;
(c) the science relating to the
impacts of the spread of the Asian honey bee on biodiversity, pollination and
the European honey bee; and
(d) the cost benefit of eradication of
the Asian honey bee.[1]
1.2
On 7 April 2011, the committee tabled an interim report, and
indicated that it required additional time to consider the evidence presented
to the inquiry, and would table its final report on 30 June 2011.
1.3
The committee's interim report focused on the science underpinning the
decision that it was not technically feasible to eradicate the Asian honey bee
from Australia. This report considers developments since the tabling of the
interim report, as well as the initial response to the 2007 incursion, and the
extent of the contribution to that initial response of industries that are
reliant on or related to the honey bee industry.
Conduct of the inquiry
1.4
Notice of the inquiry was posted on the committee's website. The
committee also advertised the inquiry in The Australian on Wednesday, 30
March 2011 and wrote to key stakeholder groups, organisations and individuals
to invite submissions.
1.5
The committee received fifty-three submissions, including three supplementary
submissions, which are listed at Appendix 1.
1.6
The committee held two public hearings in Canberra, on 24 and 31 March 2011.
A list of witnesses who appeared at the hearings is at Appendix 2. The Hansard
transcripts are available on the internet at http://aph.gov.au/hansard.
Background to the inquiry
Process for attempting to eradicate
pest incursions
1.7
The attempt to eradicate the Asian honey bee following its incursion
into Australia has been primarily dealt with through existing processes for
dealing with emergency plant pests.[2]
1.8
The eradication of emergency plant pest incursions which pose a potential
threat to Australia's agricultural industries is conducted in accordance with a
coordinated national response plan, the National Emergency Preparedness and
Response Plan (the response plan). The response plan specifies the procedures
for handling emergency plant pest incursions at the national, state, territory
and district levels.
1.9
Upon the detection of an emergency plant pest and declaration of an
outbreak, the Consultative Committee on Emergency Plant Pests (CCEPP) meets to
determine the feasibility of eradication. The CCEPP is Australia's key
technical body for co-ordinating national responses to emergency pest
incursions and assessing the technical feasibility for their eradication. The
CCEPP makes recommendations to the (in this case, Asian Honey Bee) National
Management Group (NMG), which is the decision making body that determines
whether to proceed with an eradication campaign and, if so, approves the
national cost sharing arrangements to fund the campaign.[3]
1.10
Funding for eradication campaigns is allocated under the Emergency Plant
Pest Response Deed (EPPRD), a formal cost sharing agreement covering industry
and government funding arrangements for the eradication of emergency plant
pests. Under the EPPRD, government and plant industry signatories share the
costs of eradicating emergency plant pests based on an assessment of the
relative private and public benefits of eradication of the pest (see Table 1
below).
1.11
If a national emergency response is agreed under the plant health deed,
the Commonwealth pays 50 per cent of the government share in all instances,
with the balance of the government share divided between the relevant states
and territories.[4]
Table 1 – EPPRD cost
sharing categories
Category of disease
|
Cost share
|
Category 1: Very high public benefits
|
100% public funding
|
Category 2: High public benefits
|
80% public funding 20 % private funding
|
Category 3: Moderate public benefits
|
50% public funding 50% private funding
|
Category 4: Mostly if not wholly private benefits
|
20% public funding 80% private funding
|
Source: Plant Health Australia website, 'Pest categorisation',
http://www.planthealthaustralia.com.au/go/phau/epprd/pest-categorisation,
accessed 2 June 2011.
Asian honey bee incursion at Cairns,
May 2007
1.12
In May 2007, a nest of Asian honey bees was detected within Australia's
quarantine barrier in the mast of a fishing boat in dry dock in Cairns. Since
that first detection, more than 350 colonies of the bee have been detected and
destroyed in the Cairns region.
1.13
The Asian honey bee is an invasive species which adversely affects
populations of European honey bees by competing for floral resources, robbing
managed hives and transmitting disease. The strain of Asian honey bee found in
the Cairns region is the Java strain, which is common in Asia, particularly in
Indonesia and Papua New Guinea where it was introduced in the 1970s and 1980s.
Since 1995, 10 swarms of Asian honey bees, mostly originating from the island
of Papua New Guinea, have been intercepted and destroyed on vessels at
Australian seaports. An incursion in June 1998 at Darwin was successfully
eradicated.
1.14
The Asian honey bee is also a natural host for the Varroa mite, a
parasite that attacks developing bee larvae or adult bees and which has been
connected to colony collapse disorder. Because it is a vector for the Varroa
mite, the Asian honey bee represents a significant threat to
Australian beekeeping industries and industries that depend on managed honey
bees for pollination.
1.15
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (the department)
website describes the following effects of the Varroa mite:
Attack by varroa mite weakens bees, shortens their lives, or
causes death from virus infections that would otherwise cause little harm. In
severely attacked colonies bees may have stunted wings, missing legs or other
deformities. Unless urgent action is taken, the vitality of bees in the colony
declines until all are dead.[5]
1.16
The department website also outlines a number of very significant risks
to Australia should the Varroa mite establish itself in Australia:
The most obvious threat is to Australia's bee and honey
industries. The Varroa mite would decimate Australia’s feral bee population and
cause a rapid increase in demand for pollination services. It is estimated that
Varroa mite could cost Australian plant industries between $21.3 million and
$50.3 million per year over thirty years...Apart from reduced honey production,
apiarists would need to repeatedly treat their hives to ensure their survival.
However, the major part of the cost of Varroa would probably
be felt not by the honeybee industry but by other industries with crops that
rely on honeybees for pollination, including almonds, avocadoes, cotton, stone
fruits, pome fruit, melons and pumpkins.
Varroa mites were discovered in New Zealand in 2000 and have
already had a major economic impact, with significant control costs and losses
of bees, hives, honey production, crop yields and export revenue.[6]
Emergency response categorisation
1.17
At the time of the detection of the Asian honey bee incursion in Cairns
in May 2007, the species was not listed as a pest species under either the Emergency
Animal Disease Response Agreement (EADRA)[7]
or the EPPRD, and therefore was not covered by any existing cost sharing
arrangements under the EADRA or the EPPRD.[8]
1.18
However, the initial response to the Asian honey bee incursion was
managed consistent with the provisions of the EADRA, which is the equivalent
set of arrangements to the EPPRD for emergency animal diseases. Queensland, as
the jurisdiction responsible for the direct management of the incursion,[9]
elected to manage the incursion consistent with this agreement on the basis
that the bee could act as a carrier of Varroa and other mites.[10]
1.19
In answer to a question on notice, the department provided the following
advice on the emergency response categorisation of the incursion up until late
2009:
In March 2009, Queensland prepared a response plan proposing
national cost‐sharing
for the Asian honey bee response. The response plan was prepared against the
requirements of the EADRA. In May 2009, Plant Health Australia, at the request
of its members and as custodians of the EPPRD, commenced considering options to
vary the EPPRD to specifically include bee pests and pest bee species.
In July 2009, the National Biosecurity Committee determined
that the current, and any future incursion of Asian Honey bees, should be
managed in accordance with the EPPRD as the potential impact of the bee was as
a 'plant pest' rather than an animal disease. The decision was also reflective
of the parties that may be impacted by an incursion of a bee pest or pest bee
species, including the pollination reliant industries that are parties to the
EPPRD.
In November 2009, the Primary Industries Ministerial Council
(PIMC) agreed that the Asian honey bee eradication program should be managed in
accordance with the EPPRD.
All parties to the EADRA and the EPPRD, have agreed to
transition bee pests to the EPPRD and to the inclusion of the Asian honey bee
as a pest bee in the EPPRD.[11]
1.20
The Asian honey bee was classed as a Category 2 pest, meaning that the
cost of eradication was split 80/20 to public and private funding respectively
(see Table 1 above). Activities to eradicate the Asian honey bee in the Cairns
region were, accordingly, funded by the Australian Government, state and
territory governments and the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council (AHBIC).
1.21
The eradication effort under the emergency response arrangements ceased
on 30 March 2011 as a direct result of the decision that the Asian
honey bee is not eradicable. Queensland has continued to fund the eradication
efforts in place at that time.
1.22
Chapter 2 of this report considers, inter alia, the initial response to
and management of the 2007 Asian honey bee incursion.
Acknowledgement
1.23
The committee thanks those organisations and individuals who made
submissions and gave evidence at the public hearing.
Note on references
1.24
References in this report to individual submissions are to those
submissions as received by the committee, not to a bound volume. References to
the committee Hansard are to the proof Hansard; page numbers may
vary between the proof and the official (final) Hansard transcript.
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