AUSVEG ups the ante in the zebra chip debate

AUSVEG has upped the ante in its public debate with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) over the import of New Zealand potatoes for processing in Australia.

The industry body released a YouTube video featuring an animation of Julia Gillard, Joe Ludwig and Craig Emerson in nappies playing Space Invaders against New Zealand potatoes while their ‘parents’ read a newspaper with the headline, “Aussie Crops Devastated by New Zealand Potatoes”. The video ends with the statements, “This is not a game. Don’t take the risk” and “Don’t take the risk: Stop Zebra Chip”.

“Our government is treating an industry worth 10 billion dollars like a game. We want our representatives in Canberra, consumers and farmers alike to hear this important message,” said William Churchill, AUSVEG Public Affairs Manager.

“What we’re seeing is Trade and Agriculture Departments that are playing games with the lives of tens of thousands of people, their families and their businesses,” said Churchill.

In addition to the video, AUSVEG has taken aim at DAFF’s credibility, claiming its website contains contradictory reports relating to the tomato-potato psyllid, which is linked to the zebra chip disease.

“The DAFF Chief Plant Protection Officer stated that there has been ‘no detection of the psyllid’ in consignments of tomatoes and capsicums, yet an Operational Science Program Bulletin from May 2012 which appears on the DAFF website reports the discovery of a live psyllid in a consignment of loose tomatoes from New Zealand,” an AUSVEG statement said.

“When a government department goes on record blatantly contradicting itself like this, severe concerns must surely be raised about their reliability as a source of information,” Churchill said.

“DAFF statements that question the scientific basis of AUSVEG’s claims are the height of hypocrisy, when it is DAFF that has failed to even be aware of new research findings highlighting the dangers of this disease in their draft import conditions review,” said Churchill.

“Clearly this is a department which not only struggles with accountability, it is one which also struggles with its own understanding of the very disease it claims to be protecting Australia from,” Churchill said.

AUSVEG has also called on DAFF to apologise for claiming that AUSVEG’s campaign is based on an emotional argument, saying the remarks are “completely offensive, insensitive and inconsiderate of the potato farmers whose businesses are at risk by the cavalier attitude being taken by DAFF”.

“The potato industry has lodged its objections with DAFF and cited new research that demonstrates the department’s fundamental understanding of the tomato-potato psyllid is flawed and the documents they rely on so heavily are now obsolete. The federal government must intervene on this issue both to block imported potatoes from New Zealand and to answer the questions surrounding the process DAFF employs when conducting IRAs,” Churchill said.

The deadline for scientific submissions to DAFF closed on 3 September. DAFF will release final conditions for the import of New Zealand potatoes later this year.