Address to The Ekka, Brisbane, Queensland

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
BRISBANE
FRIDAY, 16 AUGUST 2024

SUBJECTS: Ekka; approval of new banana QCAV-4.

ANTHONY CHISHOLM, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: It's great to be here at the iconic Brisbane Ekka with the Agriculture Minister, Julie Collins. The first time here as Agriculture Minister, but not the first time here at the Ekka. It's great to have you here again. It's also good to be here with Professor Dale, who's going to talk about the important advancements we have made in regards to bananas as well.

It's really great to be here and showcase the Ekka. The work that the different industries are doing here to educate the children and visitors about the importance of farming and produce is a really vital part of the show, and it's something that's been going on here for more than 100 years. So it's great that the new Agriculture Minister could visit and see that firsthand and use that experience to guide future policy decisions of the Federal Government as well, and we're sure that we're supporting our farming communities across the country and in Queensland. So I will hand over to her to say a few works.

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: Thanks, Anthony. It's terrific to be here in Queensland and great to be back at the iconic Ekka. Going to agricultural shows around the country is really important to connect us, as Assistant Minister Chisholm just said, with farmers and businesses around the country. We're also grateful in terms of education for children, and it's great to see so many kids here at the Ekka today.

Importantly, of course, it's great to show people about how important the agriculture industry is here in Australia. It is worth $84 billion this financial year to Australia. So it's a very significant employer and very significant producer and, of course, we have terrific products that are renowned across the world.

Today, I'm pleased to be able to announce another terrific produce for Australia, and this is our scientists working together with producers to ensure that Australian bananas continue to be disease free. The Panama disease has been affecting banana crops around the world and unfortunately we have seen some here in Australia, and today we can announce that after 20 years of research, we now have what's called the QCAV-4, a Cavendish banana that will be resistant to Panama disease, and I want to pay tribute to the Australian scientists, the Australian producers for getting this banana up and ready, and importantly, the food standards, FSANZ, say that this product and this banana is absolutely for human consumption.

We know that Australians love their bananas and, indeed, I was surprised to find out that we eat millions of them every day here in Australia. So we know how important they are to Australians and to our exporters. So I will hand over now to Professor to talk to us specifically about our QCAV-4 banana. 

JAMES DALE, DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR QUT: Thank you very much. Thanks for the opportunity to talk about our recently approved banana, QCAV-4. As the Minister said, bananas are incredibly popular in Australia. It's around about 5 million bananas per day. But bananas are around about the sixth most important crop in the world. So majorly important. Australia is one of the best producers, one of the best industries in the world. We’re a domestic producer rather than an exporter. We produce Cavendish bananas. In fact, over 98 per cent of the world's export bananas are just this one variety.

The problem with Cavendish is that's been around for a long time. We believe it's more than 1,000 years old, so it's a real heritage variety, but unfortunately for all its wonderful characteristics, of taste, texture high yielding, it has a number of risks to disease and one of those, importantly, is the one that can lead to the Panama disease. This is a disease that kills Cavendish, and it's moving around the world and has been in Australia since the 1990s. Originally up in the Northern Territory and more recently, unfortunately, it's made its way back up in North Queensland.

So we started [indistinct] business 20 years ago but we started working on this disease and we now have developed [indistinct] that it is close to immune from this disease. We've had it in the field up in the Northern Territory for over six years now and only a very, very small [indistinct].

So the way we've done that is we've gone to wild bananas, at the moment it occurs in South-East Asia, from that banana and move it across to another banana [indistinct]. At the moment, Panama disease isn't causing a massive problem in North Queensland so we won't be winding this out too quickly. It's our safety net, Australia's safety net for our Australian industry. So thank you very much for giving me time to talk to you.