Question On Notice No. 328 asked in the Legislative Council on 24 August 2017 by Hon Martin Aldridge
Question Directed to the: Minister for Agriculture and Food
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
Question
I refer to the Minister's media statement on 21 July 2017, "Steps taken to build biosecurity capacity", with reference to the Department of Agriculture and Food’s response to secure market access for produce following the discovery of the tomato potato psyllid in Western Australia, and I ask:
(a) of the 150 staff working in the incident response team, what functions did they play in the response;
(b) of the 150 staff working in the incident response team, what departments were they from;
(c) what was the total cost of the response to the tomato potato psyllid outbreak to date;
(d) has the Minister selected an implementation working group to review the report’s recommendations; and
(e) who has the Minister selected to form the working group, which is due to report by October 2017?
Answered on 10 October 2017
(a) (i) Incident control and management
(ii) Planning
(iii) Logistics
(iv) Operations
(v) Public Information
(b) The Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia. Contractors were also employed to undertake specific response activities.
(c) $2.309m at the closure of the incident on 19 May 2017.
(d) The implementation working group has been formed by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development. Members were not selected by the Minister.
(e) Not applicable