Interview with Kylie Baxter, ABC Hobart

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC HOBART DRIVE
WEDNESDAY, 27 AUGUST 2025

SUBJECTS: H5 Bird Flu Preparedness.

KYLIE BAXTER, HOST: Biosecurity Tasmania has received a $730,000 Federal funding boost to help with equipment needed in the event of a bird flu outbreak here. I'm joined by Julie Collins, the Federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Julie, good afternoon.

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: Good afternoon, Kylie, and to your listeners today.

BAXTER: So, how concerned are you about the deadly H5 strain of bird flu reaching our shores?

COLLINS: Well, we're very concerned about it reaching Australia. It's really, you know, something that we can't keep out because it comes in via migratory birds. Every other continent on the globe has it, Australia is the only continent without this H5 strain of bird flu, and we've seen some of the mass casualties in other countries, particularly around mammals, native wildlife and birds. So what we want to do is work as effectively as we can to detect it as early as we can. We're not going to be able to eradicate it, but whether or not we can protect, particularly some of our native animals and some of our endangered species, is what we're trying to do, and obviously, we want to limit the impact on our economy and our food supply system, too.

BAXTER: And so how will this funding offer extended protections against the virus entering Tasmania, what's it actually going to be spent on?

COLLINS: Well, the Tasmanian Government, we've been talking to, and Biosecurity Tasmania will be purchasing some critical equipment. We're talking about a decontamination trailer, a sterilizer and a truck washing mobile platform so that they can wash down the trucks and sterilize them as they need to, to try and stop the transmission, should it get in. So, what we've done as a Federal Government is we've worked with every state and territory and talked to them about what else do you need. Some states are doing things like drones, mobile laboratories to do testing in remote settings, things like that, to make sure that should we get, you know, a lot of dead birds somewhere that we can get in quickly, early and test them and get on top of it so we know what we're dealing with as quickly as possible to try and stop it moving around as much as we can. And so on that, Kylie, I'd ask anybody that sees any group of dead birds in coming weeks and months to get online to go to birdflu.gov.au and report it to the appropriate authorities so that we can get in there and test it, and please do not touch any dead birds, would be our strong message. What we're seen overseas is that this can be devastating, as I said, to native wildlife, to mammals, to birds, and we've also seen it enter livestock and some of the food production systems across the globe, and it's costing some countries billions and billions of dollars. Which is why our Government put $100 million into preparedness to make sure Australia is ready for this when it comes. As I said, we're never going to be able to stop it, but what we can do is we can slow it down, we can detect it early, and we can be ready and learn from how it's impacted other countries.

BAXTER: My guest is Julie Collins, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and we're talking about the risk of the deadly H5 strain of bird flu reaching our shores, reaching Australia and even Tasmania. That has not happened at this point in time. Julie, this funding was part of a $12 million Commonwealth program, and you know, that is also very important, and we talked about some of the locations it will benefit, they include the Hobart Zoo and Aquarium, Trowunna Wildlife Park at Mole Creek, the East Coast Natureworld at Bicheno and also Devils@Cradle. Is this a critical addition, this extra money to top that up?

COLLINS: Well, it's part of the $100 million investment, Kylie, and I've been to the Hobart Zoo and Aquarium, so what they've done, for instance, is they've improved their biosecurity into those captive breeding native areas, so with the quolls for instance, you know, with the devils, to make sure that, if it enters Tasmania that it's not going to impact these native species because of the improved and increased biosecurity protections for them. The other thing we've done nationally with our $100 million is obviously we've given some to Wildlife Health Australia to do better coordination and better detection and surveillance should the bird flu come into Australia. We've also been working importantly with industry about what we would need to do if it got into our food system, so, for instance, into egg production or in terms of that, and what we might need to do to try and stop that as quickly as possible. We saw with the H7 bird flu virus, we've had two outbreaks in the last three years, what that's done to egg supply in the country, and the impact that that has had on people being able to access eggs at a reasonable price, so we are concerned about the food system as well in Australia, so that is part of the preparedness. We've also purchased some vaccines and are testing whether or not it's going to be possible to vaccinate, particularly, you know, some of our native species who are in captivity or not, and we're working with other countries around is it safe to do that and what does that look like. We've also purchased some vaccines for humans, we know that it can get into humans too, although it's not considered bad if it gets into humans, but, you know, we need to do anything there. There have been a few cases in the US of farm workers being affected with bird flu, with the fairly mild bird flu. So we are looking right across that whole one health system right across government agencies all working together with states and territories, with industry, and with not for profit and civil society, because this is everybody's responsibility, biosecurity. And it's only by doing this preparedness, we've done some exercises with state and territories, you know, if it got into this spot, what would our response be, how do we do it on the ground, what does that look like, and we've learnt from those operations. So, we're getting as prepared as we possibly can, Kylie, because we understand this will have a big impact on our native wildlife, on our mammals, on our birds, and indeed, as I said, could impact food systems and could impact human health at some point. So, we want to make sure we're ready.

BAXTER: Well, look, let's hope we keep it out, and good to hear what's being done, Julie Collins. Thanks for joining me.

COLLINS: Thanks very much, Kylie.