QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Ms COLLINS (Franklin—Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) (14:59): I thank the member for Hasluck for her interest in the H5 bird flu. I know that she, like many members in this place, is very concerned. She has been in touch with me, as have many other members in this place.

I also thank those members of the parliament who attended the briefing from the chief vet last night in relation to how we are managing the H5 bird flu outbreak in Australia. The member for Hasluck and some other Western Australian members are particularly concerned about black cockatoos in Western Australia. I'm pleased to update the House that the Western Australian government has today announced a vaccination trial on threatened black cockatoos at Perth Zoo.

This will focus on three species—the carnabys, the baudins and the forest red-tailed black cockatoos. I know that many Western Australians will indeed be very pleased to hear that. This is part of our national approach in terms of the rollout of vaccinations that we are working on with the states and territories.

It's part of our significant preparedness that we have undertaken, including years of vaccine testing undertaken by the CSIRO specifically for Australian native birds. As I said yesterday, the Victorian government has also announced that the little penguins at both Phillip Island and St Kilda will be vaccinated as early as next week. I know that the member for Macnamara is particularly pleased about the penguins in his electorate; he has spoken to me about that, and it's terrific.

I know that many Victorian members are pleased that we'll start vaccinating those penguins with the Victorian government next week. I also want to update the House on a new development today in my home state of Tasmania. Tasmania's state laboratory has returned its first positive result for the H5 bird flu, in samples taken from a brown skua, a migratory bird.

It was found at Rocky Cape in the member for Braddon's electorate; I met with her earlier today to talk about her concern about the H5 bird flu in Tasmania. We have sent samples to the CSIRO lab for confirmatory testing and will provide an update to the public as soon as these results become available. If confirmed, this would be the first confirmed case of H5 bird flu in Tasmania—and that will be six states in Australia that have the bird flu.

This is not unexpected and I know that it's disappointing, but it is a sign that our biosecurity system is working and our detection system is also working. I'm also pleased to update the House that, today, the Tasmanian government has indicated that it will prioritise the vaccination of orange-bellied parrots, a very special bird that I know many people are aware of.

I reassure the Australian public that we will continue working on our H5 bird flu response, and I reiterate that there is no evidence of any detection of the H5 bird flu in our poultry or agricultural systems and that the risk to human health remains low. I also thank the Australian public for reporting sick and dead birds at birdflu.gov.au.