Interview with Warwick Long, ABC Country Hour

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC COUNTRY HOUR
THURSDAY, 6 FEBRUARY 2025

SUBJECTS: Eradication of H7 avian influenza; international trade.

WARWICK LONG, HOST: Agriculture Minister Julie Collins joined me to talk about that milestone and her government's record in the lead up to this year's federal election, earlier today. Minister, welcome to the Country Hour.

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: Great to be on today, Warwick.

LONG: A pretty important day today as well, in terms of the declaration that Australia is free of a bird disease that really held a grip on our egg industry over the last year.

COLLINS: It did indeed. This is the H7 avian influenza, and we know that it really impacted particularly Victoria, NSW and the ACT from sort of May to July last year. But what this means now is all of the controls that were in place have been successful and they can now be lifted, and this is obviously important for our trade, but it's also important, of course, that we have managed to eradicate this H7 virus. We've successfully been able to do it a few times now, and it shows the strength of Australia's biosecurity system, but it also shows how well industry and the tiers of government work together when we have these types of animal disease outbreaks.

LONG: Yeah. Is it important to note that, because there are other threats, particularly even of this disease, but other diseases on the horizon. Biosecurity is always a big issue in Australia. Is it important to note the wins when you have them like this? Eradicating it from Victoria, ACT and NSW?

COLLINS: It's absolutely worthwhile, you know, celebrating the collaboration, the cooperation that went on. It shows the strength of our system, and it gives Australian consumers and the Australian public confidence that we can do this and we can do it well in Australia. Our biosecurity system in Australia is world-renowned and it shows the strength of it. Our government, of course, has invested now more than $1 billion in strengthening that biosecurity system. Obviously we are concerned about future outbreaks. I've been on your programme before and we've talked about the H5, that Australia remains the only continent free of that H5 avian flu that has sadly impacted migratory birds and mammals overseas. We've now put over $100 million into preparedness for the H5 and, fingers crossed, so far we haven't got it. It's not something we can stop at the border, Warwick, but it will come in via migratory birds. What we want to do is detect it early and get on top of it early, and we've seen from the H7 outbreak that we can deal with these things if we detect them early and we actually put all our protocols and our systems in place.

LONG: Yeah. Has the eradication of H7, has that helped understand the preparedness of the Australian system for the H5 bird flu strain, which is, as you say, the bad one happening around the world that has spread more into the environment?

COLLINS: Well, yes, we're always learning from every outbreak and obviously we've also been doing some exercises in relation to H5. We've done like, you know, a desktop exercise about where would an outbreak most likely occur and how do we deal with that, and that’s why we’ve invested in all of that.

LONG: That's involved Agriculture and the Environment, hasn't it? How have those departments gone working together to prepare for that?

COLLINS: Yeah, it's actually what we call the One Health, Warwick, right across government. So, it's not just Agriculture and Environment, but it's Agriculture, Environment, Health and a whole range of other government departments, including our new Emergency Management Agency and Prime Minister and Cabinet and everybody working together right across government, but importantly also with industry and with other tiers of government. It was Operation Volare, and we did it right across the country and we learnt from that and that's why we then invested the $100 million, based on the experts, about the best way to detect it early and the things that we would need to do to be able to detect it early. That includes things like mobile testing units being deployed. It's about raising awareness with the Australian public if they see a group of dead birds about what to do, not touch them, and get them tested. So, there's been a whole range of that. We've obviously got the public website - thebirdflu.gov.au - that people can go on and find all that information, to make sure the Australian public, if they see anything, can alert the government authorities. Biosecurity and this sort of thing is everybody’s responsibility, Warwick, and we all need to work together.

LONG: The federal government and the states have committed to a caged egg phase out by 2036. Is that still on the cards, given the difficulties of bird flu in free range chicken populations, particularly in this outbreak? Nearly 2 million birds killed in this outbreak. Has that given you pause to reconsider that phase out?

COLLINS: Well, this is obviously being implemented by different states at different rates, but that is the deadline across the country and that was agreed to by Agriculture Ministers. I think what we've seen with this bird flu is around 7%, I think it's about 1.8 million birds of our laying flock, that we have had to, as you say, kill or destroy because of this outbreak and that will take some time to recover. But we're seeing now those chickens come online and start to lay some more eggs and that will take some time to recover. So, that is obviously impacting supply across the country at the moment.

LONG: So, is that a risk for future bird flu outbreaks if there are so many free-range chickens and so many have died during outbreaks like this?

COLLINS: Well, obviously, that's why it's important that we get on top of them really quickly, Warwick, and that's why our country has been doing all of the work on preparedness. That's why we also have been looking at food security and supply chains, particularly coming out of COVID.

LONG: It is an election year. You'll probably go to the polls in the first half of this year. When you look back, what do you think your government's big achievements are in agriculture for this term?

COLLINS: Well, clearly our big priorities have been around biosecurity and trade, and I think we have delivered on those, absolutely. We've invested more in sustainability of the biosecurity system. You've seen the evidence of that from our investment, more than $1 billion. You've seen it in terms of our preparedness to make sure that we're ready for the H5 bird flu strain that we just talked about. But importantly, with trade, what you've seen is not just the return of some of the $20 billion of trade impediments that we inherited, particularly with one of our largest trading partners, but you've also seen a lot of work from us in terms of diversifying Australia's trade. Our agricultural trade is now the most diversified it has ever been. There's now around 169 different market access points that we have. And we've been working really hard with industry and of course, restoring our global standing with all the good work that our Foreign Minister and our Trade Minister have been doing across the globe to ensure that we have market access and that we maintain that market access or even better, improve the accessibility and reduce some of the barriers to that access. So, we've been working really hard on that, and I think our success with that is evident to Australian producers.

LONG: Could that be more difficult with a Trump presidency talking about tariffs so wildly at the moment?

COLLINS: Well, obviously, you know, we do have a free trade agreement that both countries benefit from with the US. We've already had our Prime Minister talk to President Trump. We've already had our Foreign Minister in the US. Our Deputy Prime Minister is going over to the US later this week. So, we'll continue to have discussions with the Trump administration in relation to our free trade agreement and to ensure that both of our nations continue to benefit from that.

LONG:  When you look then back here locally as we head to the election, not that I'm expecting you to be making any election announcements. But what is there still to do? What are sort of big areas of agriculture that you feel needs greater focus in the coming years?

COLLINS: Well, we want to make sure that we continue the success of Australian agriculture. We have some of the most productive farmers across the globe. We have some of the lowest emissions and some of the most sustainable farming practices across the globe. So, we need to make sure that continues. We need to make sure that we're able to prove those things. So, we've been doing some work, obviously, on sustainability and traceability, ensuring that our farmers and our producers can show the world that we are some of the most productive and some of the lowest emission producers of food and, you know, when you talk about global food security, we're a 70% exporter of agricultural products. When you talk about food security, we want to continue to feed the globe, and we want to continue to have our great produce go right across the globe. Australian farmers are getting a premium for it - we want to make sure that continues.

LONG: Thank you very much for your time. Julie Collins, always good to talk to you.

COLLINS: Thanks very much, Warwick, and to your listeners today.