Interview with Tim Webster, 2SM

He joins me on the line now. Morning, Minister. MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Hi, Tim.

How are you going? TIM WEBSTER: I'm good, mate. Look, bird flu, when we had it established in WA then South Australia and all the mainland states, I guess we knew we had an imminent problem, didn't we?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, that's right, Tim. I mean, as you probably are aware, Australia is the last continent on Earth to have this strain of bird flu come to our shores. So we've been very lucky in a sense that it hasn't got here sooner.

That's a real credit to all of the people who've been involved in the biosecurity preparations and the surveillance work that’s been underway. But it was inevitable that it was going to come to Australia. And I guess the message I can send your listeners is that we are very well prepared as a country because we have had that time to prepare.

TIM WEBSTER: Yeah, indeed. The migratory birds, now, we get that and they tend to cling to the coast. But the issue we've got now is, of course, our dear friends, the seagulls.

And we know they get onto the MCG and the SCG and chip scavenge on the beach. So it gets into the seagulls. How much of an issue is that going to be?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, I think there's no doubt that the fact that this is now spreading to local birds, not just migratory birds that are coming in from other parts of the world, certainly increases the risk. And of course, you will have seen yesterday, we confirmed that we'd seen the first mass mortality of birds off the coast of South Australia. So that's another development as well.

But yeah, undoubtedly, now that this strain has got into seagulls and other native birds, that does increase the likelihood of further transmission. You know, it's one of those things that we can't stop - you can't stop birds flying into Australia. You can’t stop them flying around Australia.

TIM WEBSTER: No, you can't. MURRAY WATT: What you can do, and what we have been doing, is investing in building up the resilience of our native species to make sure that if some of them do get impacted, we've still got plenty left over to keep those species growing into the future. TIM WEBSTER: What about the risk, the concern that it may also, the flu, get into the marine mammals.

That's a worry too. MURRAY WATT: That's right. I think a lot of people haven't realised that because of the name ‘bird flu’, people understandably think this is something that can just affect birds, but it also can transmit to mammals, whether that be seals, sea lions, dolphins.

We've seen that kind of thing happen in other parts of the world. And I think, frankly, that will be distressing for people when we start to see that here in Australia. In fact, one of the sub-Antarctic islands that Australia owns, Heard Island, we have seen a mass mortality of baby seals there.

So, you know, again, we'll do everything we can to try to keep those species at a population level that they're still going to be around forever, but it's going to have very serious impacts. We need to be honest about that. TIM WEBSTER: Yeah, we do.

And you know, the poultry, and I think I’m starting to read that farmers may lock their hens up if they're free-range, they might lock them up. And the cage-laid eggs may be still around, they might have to rebrand the eggs. But that's not a concern yet, the poultry, or is it?

MURRAY WATT: No, it's not yet, Tim, and that's obviously a good thing. We have seen overseas that when we've seen bird flu arrive in other countries, it has spread to the poultry industry, but that has not occurred at this point in Australia. That's obviously a good thing for Australian consumers in terms of our ability to get eggs, to get chicken meat.

But it's also really important from a trade perspective as well that we are at this point free of bird flu in the poultry industry. We can't rule out that will happen going forward. And again, that is what we have seen overseas.

But there's been a lot of work done with the poultry industry over the last couple of years to enhance biosecurity. So everything that is possible to be done is being done. TIM WEBSTER: Yeah.

And just quickly, I'm sure the advice still is, don't be picking up dead birds you see on the beach. Report them. Yeah?

MURRAY WATT: That’s exactly right Tim. You know, I can understand people's interest but it comes down to avoid, record, report. So avoid contact, record what you see if you see lots of sick or dead animals, and report it to authorities.

There's lots of good information available on our website birdflu.gov.au answering all sorts of questions that people might have. TIM WEBSTER: Good on you. You had a limited time, I appreciate your time.

Thanks. MURRAY WATT: No worries. Thanks Tim.

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