DEPARTMENT
OF PRIMARY INDUSTRIES AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT — BIOSECURITY STAFF
1051. Hon COLIN de GRUSSA to the Minister for Agriculture and
Food:
I
refer to the Queensland fruit fly, medfly and European wasp programs within the
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development.
(1) Can the
minister please provide the current staffing levels allocated to each of the
programs listed above in terms of full-time equivalent, full-time, part-time or
casual?
(2) Can the
minister please list the work location for all staff in (1)?
(3) What staffing
changes have occurred in these programs over the past 12 months; and, if any
staff members have left these roles, can the minister please provide details of
their time employed in these roles prior to their departure?
(4) What were the
previous roles of any new staff who have joined these programs?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the
question.
(1) The medfly
eradication program has five full-time equivalents—three full-time and
two casual. The Queensland fruit fly program has 7.8 FTEs—three
full-time and 4.8 casual. The European wasp program has 1.5 FTEs—three
part-time.
(2) The medfly
eradication program staff are located in South Perth, 3.5 FTEs; and Carnarvon,
1.5 FTEs. The Queensland fruit fly program staff are located in Perth, 3.8
FTEs; Kununurra, one FTE; Geraldton, one FTE; and Manjimup, two FTEs. The
European wasp program staff are located in South Perth, 1.5 FTEs.
(3) The reduction
of five FTEs in the medfly program is associated with the change in focus of
the medfly activities in Carnarvon from eradication to management. Two of the
staff had less than three years' experience and three staff had less
than one year's experience. The increase of 3.6 FTEs in the Queensland
fruit fly program is associated with increased horticultural production areas
in WA requiring an expansion of the
surveillance grid. There was a reduction of one FTE in the European wasp
program as two part-time staff have taken redundancies. An incident was
declared from March to July 2019 to respond to the seasonal increase in nest
numbers—166 nests across 12 local government authorities—and
additional resources were deployed, including 513 days contributed by
departmental staff and 410 days by agency staff—casual.
(4) Staff joining
the Queensland fruit fly project have not held substantive positions with the
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development previously. One FTE
had six months' experience in incident response, and two FTEs had two
years' experience in agriculture.