Press conference, Sydney

ZALI STEGGALL, MEMBER FOR WARRINGAH: Good morning. It's an exciting day. I'd like to start by acknowledging the Cammeraygal people as their Elders past and present on this beautiful land and acknowledge and thank their custodianship. It’s an exciting day here for Taronga Zoo and their incredible programs and it’s my pleasure as the Member for Warringah to welcome Minister Murray Watt, Minister for the Environment for a very exciting announcement.

MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Thank you very much Zali. Thanks Zali for welcoming us to your beautiful electorate and can I also welcome David Moncrieff, the new member for Hughes who is joining us here today as well. And thank you, of course, to Cam and the entire team here at Taronga Zoo who do such a fantastic job conserving our native species for all Australians to enjoy for generations to come, as well as of course being one of the leading tourist attractions in Australia, in addition to all the very important environmental work that you do.

Today I’m very pleased to announce the recipients of grant funding from the Federal Government for a really important program as part of our preparedness exercises in the event we were to have the H5 strain of the avian flu or bird flu arrive in Australia. I think all Australians are aware that right now around the world we’ve seen terrible outbreaks of the H5 strain of bird flu which is decimating commercial poultry operations and native wildlife in every continent except Australia. We have been very fortunate in Australia to be the only continent that has not experienced an outbreak of the H5 strain of bird flu, which is a much more deadly and damaging strain than the strains of virus that we’ve seen here in Australia to date. We obviously want to keep it that way. We are hoping to avoid an outbreak of H5, but the reality is that it’s not something that we can stop getting to Australia, but we can certainly make very big efforts to ensure that we are prepared in the event we do have an outbreak of that strain. The reality is that this strain of bird flu and all strains of bird flu are transported from place to place by migratory bird species. So that’s why I say that despite all of our best efforts there’s no way we can guarantee it won’t arrive here, but what we can 
do is make sure that we are well prepared and that’s what this grant program that we’re announcing today is all about.

All up, the Albanese Government is investing $100 million in preparedness exercises, preparedness initiatives to make sure that we are well prepared and one of them that we’re focusing on here today is about making sure that we’re taking steps to protect threatened species whether it be birds, mammals, other wildlife to ensure that we do have those populations of threatened species forever to come. Now, Taronga Zoo, along with many other institutions around the country, already does a fantastic job of protecting threatened species and having captive breeding programs underway that increase the population of these threatened species. What we want to do is make sure that if we did have an outbreak of the H5 virus that those threatened species don’t face reductions in their population because of the virus spreading into what are already threatened species populations.

So to give you a couple of examples and Cam can explain further what’s happening here at Taronga Zoo, Taronga Zoo will be receiving funding from our Government to improve the kind of quarantine facilities, the barriers that they put in place to separate populations of two threatened species, being the Regent honeyeater bird and also the plains-wanderer bird. Now they’re already species that are under immense pressure, and in fact, we were hearing that the Regent honeyeater there’s only 300 of them left in the wild, and there’s 150 being bred here at Taronga Zoo. What we want to make sure of is that if we were going to have an H5 outbreak in Australia that those 150 that are under captive breeding here at Taronga Zoo aren’t wiped out, because of course, what we want to do as Australians is make sure that we have these populations of threatened species for the future. So this grant program that we’re announcing today is $2.8 million all up. There’s another round to come, which we’ll be announcing before too long as well, and that money will go to 23 zoos and other institutions around Australia to support them with their captive breeding programs and make sure that those threatened species can be kept separated and protected from any influx of H5 if it were to come to Australia. As I say, here at Taronga Zoo the efforts are going towards two bird species but around the country we’re seeing zoos share in this funding to protect birds, mammals, bandicoots, quolls, all sorts of threatened species that we want to make sure don’t just maintain their population but actually increase and be allowed to be released back in to the wild.

So I’ll leave it at that in terms of this program and we might introduce a couple of other speakers and then happy to take any questions that you have after that. So over to Cam Kerr, who knows everything about Taronga Zoo.

CAMERON KERR, CHIEF EXECUTIVE TARONGA ZOO: Thank you and welcome, for coming to Taronga today. Look, I think the Minister has outlined very clearly the threat of H5N1 and at Taronga and other good conservation-based zoos we commit our organisations to saving wildlife. And what we need to understand is that in the 21st century, many of our famous and iconic species are simply in survival mode. Small, isolated threatened populations, due to the practices of the last 200 years. The good news is though that we know what needs to be done in a co-ordinated approach with the Zoo and Aquarium Association, conservation zoos are breeding up populations and rewilding. The Minister talked about the Regent honeyeater, that’s a classic case study of work in a coordinated way to buy time to keep the population in the wild funded and supported with new animals coming in, while we repair habitats. Of course, these populations are very vulnerable, and for that reason, something like highly pathogenic avian influenza could easily wipe out a population in the wild. These insurance populations that we use for their good genetic material that are feeding back in are really, really critical to that.

This funding is critical to mitigate the risks of us losing those insurance populations amongst the conservation zoos. We are doing that by putting covers over the aviaries where we breed these animals and that stops the interaction of wild birds interacting with these very precious endangered species that we’re breeding up for release in safe habitats. Other examples of that, of course, inherently zoos have very good biosecurity because we deal with disease, we deal with incidences for wild animals coming in all the time. In fact, we see thousands of wild animals coming into our wildlife hospitals every year. This funding supports also improving the infrastructure to increase the biosecurity in our facilities across our zoos. So, it’s got two key purposes, the main one is to keep wild birds that might come in from the northern hemisphere that have disease away from those 
precious small populations that are the feeders to keep the wild populations going. Secondly, it’s supporting materials and infrastructure across the good conservation zoos around Australia, like Taronga, in our infrastructure to ensure that when animals come into our hospitals that we can keep good biosecurity practices in place and improve them further.

So, I think this is a really exciting day. I greatly appreciate the support of the Federal Government with this funding, recognising the critical role that zoos play, and I also really appreciate the support of the Zoo and Aquarium Association which coordinates the conservation-based zoos around Australia, assists us in advocacy, supports that funding and shares it around those zoos doing the great work. Thank you I’ll hand over to Nicola Craddock now, the CEO of the Zoo and Aquarium Association.

NICOLA CRADDOCK, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ZOO AND AQUARIUM ASSOCIATION: Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I am delighted today, it’s a very exciting day, we’re thrilled to have this opportunity. The Zoo and Aquarium Association represents around 98 welfare-accredited zoos, aquariums and wildlife parks across the Australasian region and that includes around 75 conservation-based wildlife organisations in Australia. We are thrilled to be the recipients of round one, $2.8 million to support biosecurity in around 23 institutions that are looking after 20 threatened, critically endangered or endangered species. These are fragile populations that have got known susceptibility to HPAI, high pathogenicity avian influenza. This disease has spread across the world, it’s been critically dangerous to a number of sea birds, wild birds and mammals, and we are really looking to protect our threatened species in Australia.

The funding that is able to support the activities across these organisations includes the barriers between wild birds and the birds that are in our care and also the mammals. The types of activities will be those barriers, it’s also personal protection equipment within wildlife hospitals and we’re looking as well at water management systems where water is used for irrigation or even feeding and watering, hydrating the animals. So, there’s a number of different precautionary measures that are needed in order to be protecting these species. Upscaling biosecurity is vitally important to be able to protect the species within our facilities. These facilities are insurance, helping insurance populations of those birds that are included in conservation or recovery programs, including breed for release activities. And where we’ve got very fragile populations out in the wild these small species populations within our zoos and wildlife parks are vitally important for being able to augment those populations on breed for release programs. Thank you.

JOURNALIST: Besides the migratory birds, are there any other points of entry?

MURRAY WATT: I might invite one of the experts to explain in a bit more detail, but one of the fantastic things about the Australian environment is that we do have wetlands from north to south, east to west. And while that is a fantastic thing it also means that they do attract migratory species from other parts of the world, and as I’ve said every other continent not Australia, including Antarctica has this strain of avian flu, so we have been very fortunate to date to avoid that in Australia, but we do need to get prepared and that’s what these kind of investments are about.

DR FIONA FRASER, THREATENED SPECIES COMMISSIONER: Thank you. I’m Fiona Fraser, the Australian Government’s Threatened Species Commissioner. As the minister has explained, any of our wetlands around Australia could be where this disease first arrives in Australia and so that is via our migratory birds which travel huge distances to reach here. But because the disease is getting closer to Australia it also could arrive from other more solitary sea birds which fly long distances and could arrive at any point and over time as well we have sea mammals such as sea lions and Australian fur seals which travel long distances as well and could also bring this disease in here.

JOURNALIST: Are there any increased biosecurity risks given Australia easing import controls from cattle as well, coming in from the US?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, so, on the topic of biosecurity more generally, this is something that our Government has worked incredibly hard on since coming to office just over three years ago. When we came to office, what we found was that the biosecurity budget for Australia had been cut savagely by the former government. We’ve turned that around by investing substantial amounts of funding to ensure that we are protected from these types of viruses that we’re talking about today, foot and mouth disease, other diseases that could potentially come to Australia from other parts of the world. You know, in terms of the recent decision around beef imports from the US, you will have seen that that decision was based on expert advice, expert biosecurity advice that advised us that this could be done in a safe manner. But we will always make sure that we’re standing up for Australia’s national interest, whether it be about beef imports, imports of other products or actually taking the steps in Australia to ensure that our native species and our agricultural industries remain safe.

JOURNALIST: Did the Albanese Government speak to the Israeli Embassy at all about Israel’s planned occupation of Gaza to try to ward it off? If so, who spoke to who?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, look, I don’t have that level of detail about discussions that may or may not have occurred between our Government and the Israeli Embassy, but what I can say is that the Albanese Government strongly opposes the suggestion of forced occupation of Gaza or displacement of the Palestinian people from Gaza. We do not believe that those steps would be in the interests of finding the peace in that area that I think all Australians want to see happen. Of course our position is that we want to see an immediate ceasefire, we want to see the release of hostages and any steps that are taken which endanger a ceasefire or long-term peace are not in the interest of Israel or the Palestinian people.

JOURNALIST: And does this influence at all Australia’s plans to recognise a Palestinian state?

MURRAY WATT: Well, we have been saying for some time now, in fact, it’s been our position for a very long time that we support a two-state solution in the Middle East. We are working alongside other countries to try to get to that point where we can have a two-state solution because we see that that is essential for long-term peace in the Middle East. So, I wouldn’t necessarily comment on whether particular incidents impact on our decisions around recognition, but it is our position, as I say, that there should be a two-state solution and we’ll keep working with other countries to get there.

JOURNALIST: Yep, absolutely. And just one more thing, does the Albanese Government have a message they’d like to send to Netanyahu?

MURRAY WATT: Well I think I’ve probably just outlined our Government’s position and other Ministers will do the same thing. We strongly oppose forced occupation of Gaza. We strongly oppose the suggestion that the Palestinian people should be displaced. We’re calling on the parties to reach an immediate ceasefire, and we want to see the impediments to aid in to Gaza removed as well as the hostages being released. So they have been our demands for some time as they have been for a number of other countries and we want to see progress so that we can see long-term peace.

JOURNALIST: Back to the H5 bird flu, is there going to be more public awareness about it?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, look, I really welcome the media’s interest in this issue today because we do need to get information out to Australians about the risk that we face from H5 coming to Australia. What we’re doing as a Government to try to protect Australia and our native species if it does come here but also to communicate to the Australian public what they need to be looking for. Some of the money that we’ve included in our $100 million package around avian flu has been directed towards communications. We’ve also lifted surveillance exercises by funding ranger groups and other groups to increase their efforts to be looking for unusual things when it comes to bird populations. For example, if Australians were to see large numbers of birds dead in an area that they might be in, that’s a warning sign and that we would encourage Australians to communicate that back to government through our emergency animal hotline. It’s by making sure that Australians are aware of that risk and knowing what to look for that we would have the best chance of controlling an outbreak if it were to come to Australia.

JOURNALIST: And then last one on plastics, would Australia pursue bans on certain classes of chemicals in plastics even though it’s not included in the final version of the treaty?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, well, you may be aware that right now in Geneva negotiations are underway for a global plastics treaty, and Australia is one of nearly 100 nations around the world calling for what is known as a high ambition treaty. We want to see strong global binding rules covering the full life cycle of plastics from their design right through to their recycling and reuse as well to minimise pollution. Unfortunately, not every country in the world is in the same position as Australia in calling for that and there are fierce efforts being made by some countries to resist those global binding rules. But we do have nearly a week to go around the negotiation of that treaty, and I would be hopeful that we can see a strong global treaty achieved. Independently of that, Australia is already taking steps through our Government to try to improve the design of packaging, including plastics, to reduce its impact on the environment. We’re investing substantial amounts of money to recycle more of these kind of products and we’re also taking strong action to try to limit pollution as well so that we don’t see it get in to the marine environment and have the impacts on animal and human health that we can see. So we will keep taking strong steps as a Government independently of this treaty negotiation. But we do want to see a strong global treaty reached because like with many issues regarding the environment it takes strong global action to make a real difference.