Interview with Melissa Clarke, ABC Afternoon Briefing

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING
WEDNESDAY, 10 JULY 2024

SUBJECTS: Nearly $7 million investment in H5 avian influenza preparedness; biosecurity; NATO; Special Envoys to combat Antisemitism and Islamophobia

MELISSA CLARKE, HOST: The Federal Government has announced nearly $7 million in funding to protect Australia from a bird flu strain that's killing wildlife overseas. Australia is the last remaining continent free from the highly contagious H5 strain of bird flu, which has caused significant deaths of poultry, wild mammals and birds overseas. Now, this is different from the H7 strain of the virus which has affected poultry in Victoria, NSW, the ACT, and Western Australia. Senator Murray Watt is the Minister for Emergency Management and Agriculture. He joined me a short time ago.

Senator, the H5 strain of avian flu, the more serious one, has spread pretty much everywhere in the world about now. Australia has been pretty lucky so far not to have it arrive on our shores so far. Is it inevitable that it will reach Australia? Is it really just a matter of time?

MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: I don't think it's necessarily inevitable, Melissa, but obviously, we are now the only continent in the world that doesn't have the H5 strain. So the chances of it coming to Australia are, of course, increased. And in addition, given that this is a disease that is spread around the world by migratory birds, most of that sort of travelling by those birds happens from spring onwards. So with spring not too far away, now is the correct time, we think, to be taking further action to make sure that we're prepared. So yeah, we don't see it as inevitable, but also what we know is that it's always better to be prepared for things that might happen. And that's the reason that we've made this extra $7 million investment today.

MELISSA CLARKE: Yeah, so tell me more about that funding. What exactly will it be doing?

MURRAY WATT: Yes, so it's important to note that this is a different strain to the one that we have here in Australia at the moment. And, of course, the incredible work that's been done by state and federal biosecurity officials, along with industry, has contained the spread of H7 to 12 commercial properties across different parts of Australia. But this investment that we're announcing today, $7 million in extra funding from the Federal Government, is really to do things like lift our surveillance across particularly Northern Australia. It will literally be able to pay for additional officers to be surveilling the northern coast of Australia and looking out for things that are a bit unusual in bird populations, such as mass deaths. That's a pretty good warning sign that there's something strange going on that we need to investigate. But also, some of this funding will go towards investigating a commercial vaccine that could potentially be made available to poultry farmers, egg farmers and others who've got an interest in this. But in addition, we're also funding greater communication with industry, with the community generally, to make sure people know what to look for and know what to do if they do see something unusual.

MELISSA CLARKE: The H7 virus has already caused a lot of damage to the agricultural sector. If the H5 virus gets here, what impact could that have on the agricultural sector? What could be the extent of impact that it could have?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, look, I'm not aware of anyone quantifying the potential damage from that, Melissa, but it would be fair to say that it would be much more serious if we were to have an H5 outbreak here. Already the outbreak that we've seen of the H7 strain, a less serious strain of this disease, the cost so far in dealing with that is already well over $40 million and moving upwards by the day. But an H5 outbreak, we think, would be much more serious, would have much more serious economic damage on industry. But also, the risk with H5 is that it's much more likely to spread to other animals, mammals, other animals in the Australian community, which would, of course, have greater economic and environmental damage as well. So again, that's one of the reasons that we're wanting to commit this extra funding to do everything we possibly can to be ready. We can't exactly put up a wall around Australia and stop birds flying in. So the best thing we can do is make sure that we're ready, and we don't want to get to a situation in a couple of months’ time if we do have this strain arrive and regret not having taken additional steps before time.

MELISSA CLARKE: With the strain that's already here, we have seen more than a million poultry birds have to be killed to try and prevent that from spreading any further. That's obviously pretty damaging for those businesses, particularly when many of those birds are healthy, they're being killed to prevent it from spreading any further. Is there any sort of financial support or compensation that can be provided to help the sector get through this time?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, you're right, Melissa, it is a devastating impact for those farms that have experienced the H7 strain. And, as you say, it's unfortunate that the way we have to deal with this thing is by euthanising large numbers of birds. I think we're up to about 1.7, 1.8 million birds, particularly chickens, who've been euthanised since the outbreak of H7. Compensation is available to those farmers and that's already being provided through state governments. There are well-established arrangements that we have in Australia for these sorts of biosecurity outbreaks when they occur. Essentially, the Commonwealth provides the majority of the funding for that sort of response and compensation with significant contributions as well from state governments and industry. So that money is being paid out to those farmers, but I don't underestimate the impact on them, both financially and in terms of their mental health. Farmers put their, you know, life and soul into running their farm and it's devastating when these kind of things occur.

MELISSA CLARKE: Look, just one last one before we move on to other news of the day. With putting this extra money towards a prevention strategy or a preparedness strategy, do you think there have been some lessons learned from the experience of fire ants entering Australia, where perhaps if more had been done at earlier stages, we could have prevented what now seems to be an inevitable spread of fire ants in parts of the country?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, I think fire ants and many other things are a lesson that the earlier you get going and the more prepared you are, the more likely you are to, first of all, be able to resist a biosecurity outbreak, but secondly, deal with it much more quickly if that outbreak occurs. We are now pouring a huge amount of money, more than ever before, into trying to eradicate fire ants. And as a resident of South East Queensland, I'm well aware of the effort that's been put in so far. It's a good thing that it has been largely contained to South East Queensland with a couple of outbreaks beyond that. But the more we can be doing, the better. And I guess the other analogy I could put forward is the work that we did with industry around foot and mouth disease not long after we first came to office. There was a very real threat that that could make its way into Australia, having got to Bali. We threw everything at it, along with industry and state governments and, touch wood, we've been able to keep that out so far. So it's a similar approach we're taking now with avian flu: doing everything we can to try and stop it coming in in the first place, but secondly, making sure that we're as ready as possible if it were to occur.

MELISSA CLARKE: All right. I want to take your gaze overseas; we have the Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles in Washington for the NATO Summit. He's there representing Australia, having been invited again to take part in the talks. There has been criticism from the Opposition about the fact that the Prime Minister himself wasn't attending. Why did he not go?

MURRAY WATT: Well I don't take these sorts of cheap shots from the Opposition that seriously, to be frank. I mean, I've lost track of the number of times that they've criticised the Prime Minister for travelling overseas and now when he decides to send his Deputy Prime Minister, who is the Defence Minister of the country, that's not good enough for the Opposition either. I just think whatever the Prime Minister does, the Opposition will have a cheap shot and criticise him. I think it's entirely appropriate for Australia's Defence Minister, who is also our Deputy Prime Minister, to be representing the country at the 75th anniversary of NATO. The primary items that are going to be discussed by NATO are defence-related. Richard Marles is the Defence Minister and a very good one at that. So I feel entirely confident in having him represent our country over there.

MELISSA CLARKE: Beyond the details of the agenda, there is the question of Australia's ongoing role with NATO and what other countries like New Zealand, South Korea, and Japan, who are invited along, what role they might play, and if there's a chance Australia's presence could be made more permanent or more formal. Surely that sort of advocacy is better coming from a Prime Minister rather than a Defence Minister or a Deputy?

MURRAY WATT: I don't necessarily agree, with respect, Melissa. I think, as I say, I think it's appropriate for the Defence Minister of our country, who is the Deputy Prime Minister, to be our representative. Richard is more across the defence matters concerning our country than any minister in our government because he's the minister responsible for those issues. You know, I think it's a good thing that NATO will be considering issues in the Indo-Pacific, and I feel confident again that Richard can make an outstanding contribution to that discussion. So, you know, I think it's fine for the Prime Minister to decide that this one can be managed effectively by Richard, while, of course, the Prime Minister can deal with many of the other issues in this country at the moment. As you know, cost of living pressures is the number one focus of our government. I think it's great that the Prime Minister is able to focus on those while he's here. With those tax cuts now being rolled out, the energy rebate relief as well, there's plenty for the Prime Minister to do while our Defence Ministry’s in very safe hands with Richard Marles.

MELISSA CLARKE: And one of the things he has been doing is focusing on community cohesion at what is a difficult time in the Australian community, with the impacts of the war in Gaza being felt across a number of parts of Australian society. And the Government's made a commitment to try and make sure that community tension does not escalate, and part of that was the Prime Minister announcing a special envoy for antisemitism. Can you take me through Cabinet's thinking of why having a special envoy and separate envoys for antisemitism and Islamophobia is the best way to go, rather than relying on, say, existing institutions like the Human Rights Commission. Why did you see a specific role for two individuals here?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, I think that obviously our Government is very supportive of the work of the Human Rights Commission and having appeared at Senate Estimates with them on a number of occasions, I'm well aware of the really important role that they play in social cohesion and a range of discrimination matters. But I think we are all aware that we face a particular moment in Australia at the moment and right around the world, where we are seeing, unfortunately, rising levels of antisemitism, rising levels of Islamophobia, and that requires a specific and targeted response from the Government. So, I think that the appointment of these two special envoys, with the envoy already being announced to tackle antisemitism - shortly to be followed by an announcement for an envoy to tackle Islamophobia - I think that demonstrates that the Government is really taking these issues seriously, that it needs more than the usual response. Because we need to make sure that all Australians, no matter what their faith, feel safe and included in Australia. And sadly, too many people of the Jewish faith and the Muslim faith at the moment don't feel safe in Australia, and we need to deal with that.

MELISSA CLARKE: And when can we expect that special envoy to combat Islamophobia to be announced? How soon?

MURRAY WATT: Look, I would expect that to be fairly soon. That's in the hands of the Prime Minister and Minister Giles as the relevant Minister-

MELISSA CLARKE: Days? Weeks?

MURRAY WATT: Look, it's probably best for me to leave those matters to people who have carriage of them, but I do know that Minister Giles and other members of the Government have been consulting members of the Muslim community widely to ensure that we choose an appropriate person. I'm sure that they'll make that announcement as soon as they can.

MELISSA CLARKE: All right, we'll leave it there. Senator Watt, thank you very much.

MURRAY WATT: Thanks, Melissa.