Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I raise the issue this evening of dung beetles in Australia. People might find this a little unusual but dung beetles would provide an incredible addition to Australia's carbon tax debate. This week I was visited by Mr John Feehan from a group called SoilCAM.

Dung beetles in Australia have done an incredible job. To provide some background, they descend on animal droppings, bury them in the soil and lay eggs in them—and the cycle begins. The unfortunate problem in Australia is that these dung beetles have a short life cycle. In my case, in Western Australia, dung beetles only have a two-month life cycle. They do their job on all manures—cattle, sheep, horses—in vast paddocks. They are buried, taken into the subsoil, enrich the soil and add nitrogen to it. They do a marvellous job at geosequestration.

Therein lies the problem. John Feehan and his group of ex-CSIRO scientists have other species from the rest of the world which can fill the gaps. This is my point this evening. Filling in the gaps is the issue confronting the scientists and entomologists that want to fill the gaps. Early in the season there are two species of dung beetle, one from northern Spain and one from southern France around the Pyrenees. One is called Onthophagus vacca and the other is called Bubas bubalus. They come early in the season, between August and September or October, and they do the same job. They descend on the piles of manure, they take them into the subsoil, they lay eggs in them and that cycle begins.

In Western Australia this is a huge issue. Only two years ago, in the south-west, the tourist season was almost cancelled because people were having to walk around, in places like Margaret River, with fly veils on. The flies were out of control. They were breeding on the massive amount of manure that was being distributed in the paddocks in the south-west region by cattle in particular and other domesticated animals.

I am saying this today because it is bizarre. Previously I approached the former agriculture minister Mr Burke about funding the opportunity to bring the beetles into Australia. He said there is a quarantine issue—there is no longer a quarantine issue. They have been accepted. I would not even try Minister Ludwig given his ineptitude in the cattle debate. We won't even go there. Dr Jane Wright of the CSIRO could be helpful, Cameron Allan from MLA where they take $5 a beast and with millions of dollars in their kitty could come up with, dare I say, only $150,000 so that John and his group of scientists could breed these dung beetles which could then be placed into the agricultural regions of Australia to do this job and fill the gaps.

They are everywhere trying to get the support to do this. The problem is that the CSIRO have estimated that to do the breeding in their quarantine areas is going to cost $150,000—a miserable amount of money to put into a program like this where these beetles have been tested, there are no risks to them unlike any other introduced species, they have been tested in Europe and the rest of the world and it would do so much not only for the soils of Australia but the ecology of Australia and the environment.

Prudence Barwick from a company called Virbac is helping to sponsor John and his group of scientists to get this into Australia. I am going to write to all these people including the agriculture minister in West Australia, Mr Terry Redman, to try and help fund this magnificent opportunity. (Time expired)