Interview with Patricia Karvelas, ABC Afternoon Briefing

E&OE TRANSCRIPT 
TV INTERVIEW 
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING 
MONDAY, 22 JUNE 2026 

SUBJECTS: H5 bird flu

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: For more on this, the Agriculture Minister Julie Collins is my guest. Welcome to the program. 

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY:  Good afternoon, Patricia. 

KARVELAS: This is obviously a very serious situation. We now have two birds confirmed as having this. How concerned should average Australians be about the spread of this disease? 

COLLINS: Well, obviously we're the last continent on the planet to get this H5 variant. We do know that it does spread really quickly. We also know that at the moment it is, as you indicated, two birds, sub Antarctic species. One of them is definitely exactly the same as what has been evidenced in terms of the H5 variant on Heard and McDonald Islands. So they're on an isolated beach in Western Australia. And now we're at the part of the process where we're doing the investigations, and we've been calling on the public, and the public have been terrific in the area in terms of letting us know about further dead birds. It's being managed by the Western Australian Government on the ground, as per established protocols for any biosecurity incursion. So they're dealing with that on the ground. They are triaging those calls and those reports, and then some more testing will be done as appropriate on any of those other birds, and then we'll get a clear indication in days, possibly weeks, about whether or not this is well established in wildlife in Australia, or if this is an isolated case. 

KARVELAS: Okay. And when you say you're getting other reports, which you called for, this is a good thing    

COLLINS: That's good. 

KARVELAS: People want them tested. How many birds   you know, how much reporting has been done? 

COLLINS: So the Western Australian Government will be reporting that on a regular basis. Obviously this has only just happened over the weekend. My understanding is that they are triaging those calls as would be appropriate. Obviously not every dead bird that people see will be as a result of or possible result of some type of disease like this. So they'll triage them appropriately and, where appropriate, send them for testing. They'll be tested first in the labs in Western Australia. If that comes up positive, they then get sent to the CSIRO lab for confirmatory testing, and it's only after that second test that we can be confident about whether or not it is the 5H bird flu. Australia, of course, has successfully eradicated two forms of the H7 bird flu. Over the last five years we've had two of those, and so we're well practised at this and well prepared, and the fact that we're the last continent on the planet to have this type of bird flu that has been circulating across the globe, we've been learning from other countries and their response. So, we have invested early to try and you know, help some of that incursion. 

KARVELAS: And one of the ways that you do that is vaccinating. Has that happened? Have we been vaccinating animals? 

COLLINS: So, the CSIRO have been doing work on the vaccinations. The vaccinations would primarily be in wildlife threatened species in terms of particularly bird populations, so they've been testing some of that. Obviously what we don't want to do is to put those vaccinations into wildlife where we haven't tested it, and we don't know whether or not it would actually work, but that can only obviously happen on a small scale for threatened and endangered species. That's not something we can do on a wholesale scale, and certainly what we've seen across the globe is that once this virus gets established it is very hard to contain. 

KARVELAS: Yes, that's right. So what is the worst case scenario here? 

COLLINS: Well, I wouldn't like to go into hypotheticals, but what I would say is that we have been doing a lot of exercises, working with states and territories, working with wildlife and environmental groups, working with industry groups about how do we best contain it should it arrive in Australia. So those exercises have been done over the last two years, we've spent a lot of time, money and energy in making sure that we've got those right in terms of how we respond. What you've seen from industry has been we've been lifting in terms of our biosecurity, and they have been investing as well, and certainly our government now, since we've been in office, has put in an additional $2 billion in biosecurity funding. 

KARVELAS: And when you say exercises, what are those exercises? 

COLLINS: So they're exercises about if it came in here, what would we do and how does that work and how would we contain it. 

KARVELAS: Okay. 

COLLINS: So they've been doing actual exercises and desktop exercises on a couple of scenarios. 

KARVELAS: Okay. And Inghams, which is of course one of the nation's biggest poultry producers, has announced that it's locking down its entire WA operations. Is that wise? 

COLLINS: Well, that's obviously an industry decision and a business decision that Ingham have taken, that's not something that our government has suggested at this case or point in time, because obviously we have, are still at the investigation phase. 

KARVELAS: Right, so but they're taking action    

COLLINS: But certainly that's pre-emptive    

KARVELAS: That wasn't    

COLLINS: They're taking pre-emptive action, and that's a business decision that they will take. I think what that shows though, Patricia, is that industry is taking this incredibly seriously. They are pre emptively making decisions and being proactive, and I think that shows the strength of Australia's biosecurity system. But the fact that two members of the public, two individual members, found two separate birds and reported them also shows our biosecurity system is working as we intended it to. Our public are our greatest resource, and they always have been in Australia, and our biosecurity system is world renowned, so the fact that we've found these two birds, now we're going to find out about how established it is, and then obviously the experts will make the decisions about what we do from that point forward. 

KARVELAS: And of course the economic impact could be pretty significant. Have you modelled the economic impact on different industries? 

COLLINS: Well, obviously, what we've done is we've modelled trying to stop it from getting into our agricultural and food production systems. That's what we are attempting to do as the government and to limit the damage it does to wildlife and biodiversity. 

KARVELAS: Do you think you can stop it getting into our agriculture systems? 

COLLINS: What I'm saying is that we should do everything we can do, Patricia, and that is what we have been doing, working with the industry sector. 

KARVELAS: But I'm trying to nail down the advice. Are they telling you, the experts, 'cause you can't on your own magic this up, are they saying to you that it's likely it will get into our agriculture sector?  

COLLINS: What they've been upfront about is we can't stop it forever, and it will get into Australia at some point. When it gets into Australia and how it gets in and how much we're able to contain it will make a huge difference in terms of what the cost is likely to be. For instance, we have seen some devastating impacts of it on wildlife overseas. We have seen in the US it get into their food production system, and they've spent like $2.5 billion just trying to maintain their food production systems with this virus. So it can have very serious consequences, but that's why we've invested early, and that's why we're working hand in hand with the states and territories and with environmental wildlife groups, and everybody coming together, working together in the national interest to make sure that we do everything we can do to contain it as much as possible. 

KARVELAS: Okay. And one of the questions, I think, that a lot of people would be asking is the impact on prices at the consumer level. In the US, where this has been an issue, egg prices rose significantly. Are these the sort of inevitabilities in Australia, that we're going to see prices    

COLLINS: We're working really hard to not get to that point, and so we've seen    

KARVELAS: What if, can I, if I can just test that?

COLLINS: Yep. 

KARVELAS: I mean if you're getting a lockdown in WA, even if it's pre emptive at this stage, I'm assuming, you know, basic economics, that will have an impact on prices as well. 

COLLINS: Well, we've done a lot of work with the incursions in the H7 virus to work out what needs to be done when and at what point. And we've done a lot of work with industry, and we've been working really closely, particularly with the egg production and the chicken meat industries, who have also put a lot of energy, effort and resources into this, to do everything we can to stop it from getting into the food production system. Certainly what you've seen with the H7 is it did have an impact, so we'll be doing everything we can to keep it out and to contain it as much as possible. 

KARVELAS: And right now consumers would also   and often consumer behaviour is affected by, you know, nervousness. What's your advice to people? Some people might be nervous about    

COLLINS: What I'd say about    

KARVELAS: Buying chicken or eggs. 

COLLINS: I'd say go about and eat your eggs and your chicken in the normal manner, and the FSANZ's advice to people is that if you cook your egg and your chicken that it is appropriate and safe to consume. 

KARVELAS: Okay. So people shouldn't be worried? 

COLLINS: No, people should not be worried about that. 

KARVELAS: Do you expect though that some people will be, I mean that this is one of the consequences too of this virus arriving in Australia? 

COLLINS: Well, what we've tried to do as a government the whole way along, since we first got advice of this late last week, was to be as transparent and as open as early as we can with as much information as we can, and that has meant sometimes, like we're in an investigation stage, we don't have all of the answers at this point in time. But we think it's in the public's interest to know as much as possible as early as possible, and that's certainly what we have done and the way that we have gone about this. So we'll be continuing to work with industry and will continue to make the decisions by the experts at the appropriate time when we get the most available information. But I certainly accept that the Australian public will be concerned, and that's why we're being so, I suppose, reassuring and calm that we have prepared for this moment and our early investments are showing fruition in that everything is working the way in which we, you know, anticipated that it would. 

KARVELAS: Okay. Thank you so much for joining us, Minister. 

COLLINS: Thanks very much.