STABLE FLY — MANAGEMENT PLAN
231. Hon COLIN de GRUSSA to the Minister for Agriculture and
Food:
I refer to the expiration of the
two-year transitionary period for the stable fly management plan 2019.
(1) Will the minister reconvene the regulatory
reference group to undertake a review of the SFMP; and, if so, when?
(2) Will the minister ensure that
any such review includes the investigation of —
(a) the requirement for composting untreated manure to
Australian standard 4454 rather than treating raw manure with sodium
borate and calcium cyanamide;
(b) the
introduction under law of a waybill system for the transportation of raw manure
for use in dry land pasture and cropping;
(c) a full audit
of the horticulture industry to determine the extent to which new equipment has
been purchased and skills developed in accordance with the SFMP;
(d) new
vegetable crop residue management practices, such as lifting residue from
tractor wheel ruts to be left on the surface to dry completely before being
returned to the soil; and
(e) the revision
of prosecutorial powers related to the regulation and management of t stable
fly such that prosecutions are able to be undertaken by the local government
authority?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the question.
I do not have a copy of the response. It was here; I do not know why it has
gone from the pile, but I can make a couple of comments.
(1)–(2) It was after quite considerable work, aided by Hon
Darren West, that we developed the stable fly management plan in 2019.
It was gazetted in 2019, and the provisions in it were that it would be two
years from the gazettal point until it became enforceable to give industry time
to adjust. In fact, the plan has probably been operating fewer than six months.
The agreement with all parties was that it would be in operation for two years
and then there would be a review; Therefore, we are not proposing to review it
at this stage. However, I have asked Hon
Darren West, as my parliamentary secretary, after one full year of operation—which
will be in either September or October 2022—to conduct an interim
review of the management plan to see whether anything needs to be geed up
before the second year is underway. As I answered in a previous question, we
are working to fix up the authorisations of local governments to ensure that
they are properly empowered to do what they need to do.