Doorstop at Parliament House, Canberra

E&OE TRANSCRIPT  
DOORSTOP  
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA 
SATURDAY, 20 JUNE 2026  
 
SUBJECTS: H5 bird flu confirmed in Australia; Parliamentary sittings. 

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: Thanks everybody, thanks for coming together on this Saturday morning. I have with me our Chief Veterinary Officer, Beth Cookson, and our Threatened Species Commissioner, Fiona Fraser. Testing last night, overnight, at CSIRO's Centre for Disease Preparedness has confirmed the H5 highly pathogenic avian influenza or bird flu in a brown skua in Western Australia. This is a type of migratory seabird. It was found sick on an isolated area near Esperance in Western Australia. As I said, this is the highly pathogenic strain of concern that has been circulating globally, and this is its first detection on mainland Australia. The samples from another sick bird, a giant petrel, have now been tested at Western Australia's laboratory and has also returned a suspected positive result for the H5 influenza. These samples will now also be sent to CSIRO's laboratory for confirmatory testing. Whilst disappointing, this is not unexpected given the global spread of the H5 bird flu virus. I can confirm that there's still no evidence of any mass mortalities at this time, nor is there any evidence of infection in any poultry. We had convened by our Chief Veterinary Officer this morning the Consultative Committee For Emergency Animal Diseases meet to discuss the new information and to consider Western Australia's response plan. The Western Australian department is leading the on ground activities and is being supported and nationally coordinated by my department, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. A key priority for this response is, of course, to determine the extent of this infection in wildlife. Can I also thank the local community. Since yesterday's report the community has been responsive to the media, and I understand our Western Australian colleagues are responding to a number of calls to the hotline. This is a sign of our system working. Our Government has now invested over $100 million to strengthen our nation's preparedness for H5 bird flu. We have looked at what has happened overseas, we have learnt from that, which is why we have invested early. I have been talking about our investments in bird flu preparedness now for almost two years. We all knew that we couldn't be bird free forever, and that we are the only continent that was bird free   H5 bird flu free   sorry, that's quite a mouthful   H5 bird flu free. I'll now hand over to our Chief Veterinary Officer, and then our Threatened Species Commissioner will have a few words to say, then we'll take some questions. 

DR BETH COOKSON, AUSTRALIAN CHIEF VETERINARY OFFICER: Thank you, Minister. As the Minister has confirmed, overnight testing of samples from a dead brown skua has confirmed that the bird was infected with H5 high pathogenicity avian influenza. This testing was undertaken at Australia's Emergency Animal Disease Reference Laboratory, the CSIRO's Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness. This is the highly pathogenic strain that has been circulating globally and is the first detection in Australia. Samples from another sick bird, a giant petrel, in the same vicinity have now been tested at Western Australia's laboratories and also returned a suspected positive result for H5 bird flu. This will be sent to the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness for confirmatory testing. Importantly, I can confirm also that there is no evidence of any mass mortality at this time, nor any evidence of infection in poultry. At this early stage it is difficult to make a conclusion about whether the infection has established in wildlife populations. It is not present in our poultry or agriculture production systems. The Western Australia Department is undertaking surveillance to better understand the situation on the ground. I understand this will be concerning news for many Australians who, like me, have a strong connection to our wildlife. We have been carefully preparing for this event for a long time. We have had the benefit of learning from the international experience, and this means that the investment that Government along with State and Territory jurisdictions and industry have made have left us as best prepared as possible to respond to this situation. Earlier this morning I convened the Consultative Committee for Emergency Animal Disease to discuss the laboratory results from ACDP, to consider the response plan, including measures to enhance surveillance and to identify whether there has been further spread. This is a key priority at this point in the investigation. As you will appreciate, it is an evolving situation, and there will be some information that we don't know and that will continue to emerge over the coming days and potentially weeks. We continue to be on alert looking for signs of disease, and the most important message for the public is to assist this through our strong biosecurity system. If you encounter sick or dead birds, we are asking that you avoid contact with them, that you record information about the location of the dead bird as well as take any information that might be helpful to us, like videos or photographs, and report that to our Emergency Animal Disease Hotline. There is a lot of information available on our birdflu.gov.au website, and I encourage people who are interested or concerned to make use of those resources. Thank you. 

DR FIONA FRASER, THREATENED SPECIES COMMISSIONER: Thank you. So the overseas experience is that there have been significant mortality events in birds and mammals where this disease has become established. We expect that if it does become established in Australia there will also be impacts to Australian wildlife, in particular birds and mammals. We have, particularly with the budget measure two years back, really been rolling up our sleeves with the States and the Territories and many other partners right across Australia to put Australia's wildlife in the best position it can be in if this disease arrives, knowing that if it does establish in Australia there's very little we can do to stop the spread and to at the time protect wildlife. So we have analysed all of Australia's birds and mammals for their susceptibility to this disease. We've taken into account whether they're already threatened with extinction, but also other natural traits, such as whether they're water birds, whether they're marine species, whether they congregate, to understand which species are most susceptible. We have also worked with the States and Territories to support them to develop now over 100 plans for our most important natural sites, such as Ramsar Wetlands, islands and other locations, and also our most susceptible species, ranging from mammals, such as the Tasmanian Devil as a scavenger is susceptible, through to critically endangered species, such as the orange bellied parrot, but also species which aren't already threatened but which could become so in some locations, such as the black swan, which is susceptible. So these site plans are in place, and they will support the jurisdictions and others to be able to best respond if the disease arrives. We've also provided funding to captive breeding facilities where they're supporting the breeding of threatened species which are required for that species' survival in the wild, and that's for biosecurity to stop species in captivity capturing that disease if it arrives in Australia. There's over 31 threatened species which are now being protected as part of these measures. The most important thing we can do for our native species is to actually take efforts to build their resilience to this disease in the wild, because we can't stop the disease itself. So that is work that is well underway. We now have dozens of projects across our islands and across Mainland Australia which are dealing with other threats right now. That might be removing weeds, it might be removing feral cats or foxes or invasive pigs and invasive rodents in particular. This then allows our most vulnerable species, such as seabird populations, but many others, to be able to breed effectively, grow their populations, and this effectively builds resilience to these diseases. We're already seeing outcomes of these, so we reported recently in the press in the Coral Sea, Willis Island, where weeding in a sooty tern colony enabled those birds to re enter that colony at the nesting space within 24 hours. So we can have remarkable impacts and absolutely no regrets actions with these measures. Okay. And I'll leave it there. Thank you. We've got many other examples if there are questions on that. 

JOURNALIST: Do you mind if we just grab your name and title, please? 

FRASER: Fiona Fraser. I'm the Australian Government Threatened Species Commissioner, and I work for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Thanks. 

COLLINS: Right. Some questions. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, what does foreign experience tell us about the lag between initial discovery and likely outbreaks, and should we take likely outbreaks now as not likely but inevitable? 

COLLINS: Well, the Chief Veterinary Officer's probably best placed to talk about the technical part of that, but what my advice has certainly been that people have provided to me is that we will know within a few days about whether or not this has established itself in any populations in Australia or whether it's migratory birds that have come up from the sub Antarctic for instance. So we'll know a bit more detail within a few days of this investigation on how bird flu got into Australia. This is our first detection, and I want to reiterate that it's not widespread, there's no evidence of any mass mortalities and no evidence that it's in our poultry or our agriculture system at this stage. 

JOURNALIST: But you, from what you say, it sounds like you expect there's a high chance you could find it to be significantly more widespread quite quickly? 

COLLINS: I think that's best answered by our Chief Veterinary Officer in terms of what we might find. Yes. 

COOKSON: The situation globally has been that this virus has been moved around by migratory birds, including waterfowl and seabirds, like the brown skua and the giant petrel. In some circumstances there have been lone detections in migratory birds that have not gone on to spill over into wild animal populations, but over time, what we've seen in many other continents across the globe is that this may not be a sole introduction because they are birds that are moving around as part of their natural cycles, and over time, if we continue to have introductions, then those opportunities for spill over become increased, and that's certainly what we've seen globally, in that eventually there does tend to be spill over into wild populations. We just can't predict that in this circumstance. As I mentioned at the beginning, it is very early in our investigation. We have two confirmed sick birds in an isolated region the coast of Western Australia, and we're taking every action now to make sure that those are appropriately investigated and putting the call out to the community to help identify where there might be other sick animals. 

JOURNALIST: Do you think Australia's native wildlife typically is quite naive to this virus in comparison to Northern Hemisphere species, and it's almost inevitable, let's say, that there will be spread in wild populations of birds and mammals? What should Australians expect to see in terms of impacts across a range of species? Are we expecting mass mortality events, that has occurred in every other continent around the country, like you say, so is that expected, and could you please name some of the species of birds and mammals that you think are most vulnerable. 

COOKSON: With the question about what we might expect to see, certainly Australia being the last continent to have a detection of this strain confirmed here does mean that our populations are naive to the virus. That's no different though, I would add, to the populations across the global including the Northern Hemisphere when this virus was first introduced into there, so it has been circulating for a number of years in those environments now, and they still do see some impacts. What we would expect is that the most vulnerable sort of areas and locations tend to be populations of animals that aggregate in high densities and that have breeding sites at high densities. I might ask Dr Fiona Fraser to respond directly to the question about the site and species specific planning that's been undertaken. 

FRASER: Thank you. So you asked a question about the species of birds and mammals which might be impacted by this? 

JOURNALIST: I think it would be important to get some examples of what you consider to be some of the most high risk, just to inform the public. 

FRASER: Yes. So marine mammals are particularly susceptible to the disease, and so we have a species of fur seals in Australia, they will be vulnerable, and the Australian sea lion, and there are indeed species specific plans to help ahead of the disease, but also if the disease arrives manage the impact of that disease for Australian marine mammals. There are many species of marine bird and water bird which will be impacted, but by way of example, Western Australia is undertaking or preparing site species specific plans for species such as the black swan and the little penguin, and there's obvious sort of behavioural reasons why that would be the case, and the blue billed duck in that area. There's also other species which their biology doesn't mean they're susceptible in the wild so much to this disease, but they're already threatened with extinction, and so that coupled with the chance that they would contract avian influenza means we also have species specific plans for those. So we have a number of species specific plans, or dozens of them around the country, but also we have these site specific plans which relate to places such as Ramsar wetlands and other important wetlands where there are really assemblages of many different species that come and go over the seasons. 

JOURNALIST: Do you mind me asking, I've just noticed the pin on your jacket, what kind of bird is that, and is that one of the ones that's perhaps vulnerable? 

FRASER: Oh, that's very observant of you. That is the western ground parrot, it's a critically endangered species found in the southwest of Western Australia. There's not many of those left in the wild, there's only about 200, but they're also in captivity. So it is subject to both a species specific plan, but also the biosecurity measures that I talked about earlier at Perth Zoo. It's not a species that congregates in big flocks around water, but due to its threat status at the moment it is always a focus of attention, but including through this bird flu planning. 

JOURNALIST: Just from your own personal perspective, because obviously you're a bird fan, how devastating could the impacts be on Australian wildlife? 

FRASER: Look, we're taking this very, very seriously, as is evidenced by some of the information we've been sharing over the last two years and today. Based on the overseas experience there could clearly be population level impacts for our species, and possibly over time species level impacts. Of course many of Australia's species are not just pressured by the potential of bird flu, they have many other pressures that they are facing at the moment, so it's the cumulation of these threats which really have population and species level impacts. 

JOURNALIST: We've heard about programs, Minister, to help, you know, wildlife protections that are outside the specific measures for controlling bird flu, avian bird flu, like habitat restoration, and so on, but the Federal Budget cut over $100 million or lapsed   programs lapsed that weren't re started, you know, feral animal control, pest control, weeds, and we've just heard that that sort of action would be a benefit to recovering populations of wildlife. Was that a mistake, will you reverse that decision and restore that funding? 

COLLINS: Well, what you've claimed in that question's actually not true. There were no cuts to those programs in the budget. 

JOURNALIST: Lapsed and weren’t pushed forward? 

COLLINS: No, those programs had a natural ending date and no decision has been taken about what will happen to those programs in the future.  

JOURNALIST: It’s less than what was being done before? 

COLLINS: No, there has been no change in the programs on the ground. That is just not true. 

JOURNALIST: When they were stopped and weren’t continued into the future? 

COLLINS: What you've seen from our Government is the early investment, because we have seen what has happened overseas in terms of the H5 bird flu. As you've heard we have invested well over $100 million, we are investing it to protect Australia's threatened species and we are also obviously investing to do what we can do to try and limit the impact on the Australian environment and Australian wildlife. 

JOURNALIST: So there's no need for further habitat restoration or preventative work. 

FRASER: I'd just add to the Minister's response that there was an additional $11 million through this recent budget specifically for bird flu measures, and that is for those on ground measures. 

JOURNALIST: I wasn't asking about that, I was asking about the preventative measures, like habitat restoration? 

FRASER: Yep. So that $11 million goes towards those preventative measures. It helps to build resilience for bird flu, but these are absolutely no regrets measures that help deal with other threats that these species are facing, whether or not bird flu arrives in Australia. We also received through the budget an additional $99 million for the Saving Native Species Program over two years which focuses on species which may be impacted by bird flu, but a much broader range of species and places around the country dealing a lot with invasive species but many other threats, and that builds on the success of the first Saving Native Species Program and complements other existing and continuing programs such as the Natural Heritage Trust. 

JOURNALIST: But while you're speaking, Fiona, and you talked about endangered species, are there endangered species where you think there is a real threat that H5N1 might force them into extinction? Is the threat that great, and if so could you name for us species that as Endangered Species Commissioner you hold greatest fear for now that you know that this disease is present. 

FRASER: So, Tim, I think all we can really rely on is what the overseas experience has been and how that might translate to Australia. So as I mentioned earlier, marine mammals are particularly susceptible to this disease, and we have seen large mortality events overseas. They include species such as similar to the Australian sea lion, so the Australian sea lion is already endangered in Australia. We've taken a number of measures over years working with State Governments and other partners to help support the recovery of that species, but it is still on the endangered list, and it will be susceptible to bird flu when it arrives. So it has just a number of breeding populations across our southern islands and mainland areas, and we are concerned about impacts to the Australian sea lion, and that is evidenced through some of the really interesting recovery work that we're supporting as a result of bird flu right now with the Australian Government and others. So we're absolutely concerned about sea lions, but there are many species we're concerned about, Tim, and I guess I don't picture in my mind an extinction level event any time soon due to bird flu, but certainly what a disease like bird flu does is add to the extinction risk of species which are already threatened. So it's not a formula where you add bird flu in and then this species is going to be extinct. It also actually depends, if bird flu establishes in Australia it will not be everywhere all at once, and there will be parts of the country that it probably never, never reaches, so it depends again on which populations are impacted because there's so much unknown about how this could spread and establish in Australia. It's difficult to answer that question, and I am not trying to be evasive about it, it's a difficult question to answer. 

JOURNALIST: Are captive breeding programs underway? 

FRASER: There's many captive breeding programs underway, and part of what I mentioned earlier was we're now supporting 31 threatened pieces which are in captivity as part of captive breeding programs to protect them from bird flu. 

JOURNALIST: 31 are being captively bred for? 

FRASER: There's many more than 31 species in captive breeding programs around the country, I don't have the answer to that. But we are supporting facilities to take biosecurity measures that will protect 31 species, just birds and mammals   there's a whole lot of other species that will never catch bird flu because they're not birds or mammals   birds and mammals which are in captivity, so they will not catch bird flu in their captive facility. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, do you mind if I just   I'm sorry, I'm just juggling a couple of things hence me loitering at the door. Do you mind if I jump in quickly on a question with negotiations from next week in Parliament? How are negotiations for the NDIS going and also around the CGT as well? Are you expecting any kind of delays in being able to pass those pieces of legislation?  

COLLINS: Look, we continue to have discussions adds we have throughout this with the crossbench and the parties in the Senate, you know, certainly what you've seen from us as a Government is we have been very consultative, we have been engaging, and you've seen some of the announcements later   just a few days ago, later   the last week. 

JOURNALIST: Would it be disappointing if there were delays? 

COLLINS: Well, obviously we always like to see things get through the Parliament in a timely manner, and we'll certainly continue to have those discussions right across the Parliament. 

JOURNALIST: What commercial sectors are at risk from this   commercial or agricultural sectors which are most at risk and how great is the risk, and how great is the risk to them? 

COLLINS: Certainly, the experience overseas has seen that it can get into agriculture systems, but I do want to reiterate that at this stage it's two birds in an isolated area in Western Australia, and we're doing the investigations. Certainly, we have been working with the agriculture industry as part of the planning for this. We have had industry with us all the time at the table in the discussions, particularly the egg and chicken meat industries in relation to what could happen in poultry. You've also seen we have effectively eradicated the H7 bird flu virus twice in recent years in our poultry system in Australia. So we have strong systems and we continue to work with industry as much as we can. 

JOURNALIST: What does the site of the discovery in this case tell us about potential threat to agriculture or to those populations, or for that matter other critical or endangered populations; is it proximate to either commercial areas or other endangered populations that give us greater concern? 

COLLINS: So in relation to proximity to the most closest chicken farm, we understand that that is hundreds of kilometres away, so we're certainly asked those questions, and the Western Australian Government are obviously working with industry in Western Australia in relation to making sure that they're doing everything that they can do on the ground there. I'll hand over to our Chief Veterinary Officer in terms of this particular isolated spot and what it might mean. As I said earlier though, we are obviously grateful to the public. After yesterday's announcement there have been, you know, reports in, and the Western Australian Government is also triaging and dealing with those. So the Western Australian Chief Veterinary Officer, I understand, will also do some media later today, or today, in relation to the on the ground activities in Western Australia. 

COOKSON: Just to add to the Minister's comments, whilst we're dealing with two individual infected animals we would assess that the likely risk to our agriculture industries remains very low. What we know from the global situation is that the types of spill over events that we see arising from contact of wild birds or wildlife with those agricultural species, particularly poultry, would be more likely if it was to become established in other populations within Australia. We just don't have that knowledge at the moment, we're actively investigating that, and where we see those risks arise is where we've got wild waterfowl in particular, ducks and the like, aggregating and interacting with livestock on the premises. And so part of the planning that we've been doing over the last couple of years is working very closely with industries and with State and Territory agricultural agencies to raise awareness, to put in place effective biosecurity planning, and I would always emphasise that effective biosecurity is the frontline prevention for any risk to agricultural industries in Australia. 

JOURNALIST: Is there any update on vaccines for wildlife? 

COOKSON: We have been working as part of the Australian Government investment for preparedness for H5 bird flu to have available a vaccine for use in a rare vulnerable and valuable species. We have undertaken some research trials to ensure that the vaccine that's available is going to be both safe and effective.  As you can appreciate, the vaccines that are registered on the global market are targeted towards poultry species, so there's not a lot of data available about how they might affect or protect other types of species. So we've done that research, we're getting the information that's required to make those assessments, and that may be something that we can consider down the track in terms of providing an extra layer of prevention and protection to captive populations. I really want to emphasise that vaccination is not a tool that is practical or feasible to use in wild animal populations, so it would be under very specific circumstances that we would take those decisions in consultation with Chief Veterinary Officers and biodiversity managers when appropriate. 

JOURNALIST: You mentioned instructions for the public coming across a sick bird, particularly obviously in the affected area in Western Australia. Implications for human health? 

COOKSON: There is generally a low risk of infection associated with this strain of the virus for humans. There have been some human infections that have occurred globally. These questions are best placed and put to the Chief Medical Officer in terms of those particular human risks. But our message is clear, what we're asking of the public is to support the assessment and surveillance of where bird flu might be present as part of our ramping up of surveillance now that we've had our first detections, and the really clear messaging is avoid contact with those dead or sick animals, record the information associated with the location and the site, and report that through our Emergency Animal Disease Hotline. The Communicable Disease Network of Australia have established guidelines for how any human exposures might be addressed through the state health agencies, and there is a high level of cooperation across all of our Governments that are involved in this type of response, so that's across agriculture, it's across biodiversity and environment, and it's across the human health sector. So all of those sectors are really well engaged in and working very closely together. 
 
JOURNALIST: Just on those examples of human infection, how   and if you're able to answer   how common is that, and what are the circumstances in which humans do become affected? 

COOKSON: Yeah, that's a really good question, and one I should have addressed. The circumstances where humans mostly become infected are those where they are in very close contact with sick or dying animals, or the environment, and where we see more serious implications of exposure is usually where there's an underlying health concern as well. That doesn't mean that people shouldn't be taking precautions, and as I've mentioned, the best way of doing that is to avoid contact in the first place. 

JOURNALIST: So just for my own clarity, if a human in Australia does become infected, are there risks of human-to-human transferability, or is it mostly from birds to humans in isolation? 

COOKSON: Again, I will defer a detailed response to the Chief Medical Officer and the health agencies. What I can say is that the Australian Centre for Disease Control is very actively monitoring and has public information available. The global assessment of the human-to-human transmission risk is rated as low. 

JOURNALIST: Broadly, the Chief Medical Officer is not standing before us, so I gather the Government's position is that this is not at the highest order of concern?  

COLLINS: Obviously, this is just two birds at the moment in an isolated area of Western Australia. What we will do is do the investigation, as the Chief Veterinary Officer has indicated, working with our State colleagues to establish whether or not it is more widespread than that. Obviously, we will bring together all of the experts on a regular basis; there shouldn't be anything more than that, but at this stage, we are working to ascertain and investigate how widespread this is on wildlife in Australia.  

JOURNALIST: Could I just check on that now that it's come once, the experts have said over the previous few years that it will be expected to come again and again and again, different waves of migration from parts of the globe. Is that right? Am I correct in that, and is that what the Government expects to see?  

COLLINS: That is certainly what we expect to see, but I'll hand over to the Chief Veterinary Officer to say more about that, but we've always been very clear that we can't be bird flu-free forever. We were the only continent without this strain of the H5 bird flu, and certainly we have now these two cases of bird flu that have been found in an isolated area in Western Australia.  

COOKSON: Those statements would be similar to my assessment. We have identified that wild migratory birds, whether they're coming in through the spring migratory periods from the Northern Hemisphere or indeed, as this would appear, associated with the movement of sub-Antarctic birds from locations where this strain of bird flu has also been detected. We know that we get migratory birds arriving in Australia periodically. It's not unexpected that at some point in time we were going to have this scenario, and as the Minister has said, we are still working very actively; the situation is evolving quickly, and we are doing our best to report to the public as soon as we have new information. But the assessment will be now that we have observed this in two migratory birds that it could be predicted that we will see it in more migratory birds, and again, without having the having information, that we will get through the active response that's currently undergoing, if it doesn't establish this time, then, you know, it doesn't mean that we won't continue to see sick migratory birds turn up with this virus.  

JOURNALIST: You mentioned your response plan, and now this may be outlined in media materials elsewhere, but I'm wondering if you could just give us a high-level view of that. Are there four or five or six steps in the response plan that we would understand is now underway?  

COOKSON: We have a series of very well-established response arrangements in Australia for emergency animal diseases. This comes under the emergency animal disease response agreement, and we've got a series of technical manuals called AUSVET Plan. They're maintained by Animal Health Australia, and they're built in collaboration between governments and industries that will activate to respond.  As part of the preparedness we've been doing for bird flu, we recognise that this looks a little bit different when we're talking about a response that is primarily focused on wild animals. So, the types of things under consideration are that increased level of surveillance to make sure that we understand where the virus is and what populations might be impacted. There will be practical actions on the grounds in terms of clear messaging out to the public, like we've talked about, what to do if you do see sick or dead animals. In some circumstances, working with biodiversity and environment managers, there might be restrictions placed on access to certain locations for periods of times. These types of activities are all being undertaken through risk assessment, and as the knowledge about the situation increases. So, there will be a range of different types of actions. They're predominantly focused around managing or protecting human health, protecting the risk to animal health and managing or reducing the risks to biodiversity and also potentially sort of social amenity of sites where we might have these cases detected.  

JOURNALIST: And you'll advise us of that hotline that you want the public to call? 

COOKSON: The birdflu.gov.au website has the best information. The hotline is very clearly accessible there. It is 1800 675 888.  

COLLINS: Thanks everyone.