QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Ms COLLINS (Franklin—Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) (14:11): I want to thank the member for Bradfield for that question. I know that she, like so many people in this place, is concerned about the impact of the H5 bird flu, and I know many members of the government have actually raised threatened species with me many times in relation to what the government is doing.

As I have said in this place many times, we have invested early with a $113 million investment in preparedness for the bird flu. Of that $113 million, $47 million has specifically gone to improving habitat and improving biosecurity for captive-held threatened species, native species, with a focus, obviously, on birds and the mammals that will be impacted by the H5 bird flu.

The minister for the environment and the environment department also have another program, which is $99 million for Saving Native Species, which is also about improving the habitat of threatened species. Since the incursion of the H5 bird flu, we've also unlocked almost $25 million—it's $24.8 million now—with the states and territories in terms of the response on the ground in relation to the H5 bird flu, and that includes the preparedness that is happening on the ground by the states and territories.

I announced in this place yesterday that part of that is the vaccination program. I'm pleased to be able to say to the honourable member that the Victorian government has actually announced today that their state will begin vaccinating penguins, little penguins, and that vaccines from the Commonwealth have now arrived at Phillip Island, with little penguins at both Phillip Island and St Kilda to be vaccinated, starting as early as next week.

As part of the vaccination trials, we have looked particularly at wild birds and vaccinations, knowing that vaccination is just a complementary part of that process and that biosecurity is our first line of defence. As part of the original $47 million investment, that biosecurity improvement has been really important, particularly for those threatened species that are held in captivity.

Lots of wildlife parks, including in my own electorate—I've seen at Raptor Refuge that they have protected wedge-tailed eagles and masked owls, for instance, and made sure that they've improved their biosecurity and the separation from native wild birds to protect them, particularly in relation to their food and water supplies as well. So there has been a lot of preparedness done to make sure that, as a government, we're doing everything we can do to protect our threatened species.

Certainly we know that biosecurity is the front line, but the vaccination and the vaccination program will also be complementary, and I look forward to hearing from other states and territories as they work on those vaccination programs. But it is terrific news that we're going to start vaccinating little penguins in Victoria.