QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Ms COLLINS (Franklin—Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) (15:00): I want to thank our fabulous member for Deakin for that question. I know that he has been following this detection and outbreak in Victoria, as I know many members in this place have around the country, as the H5 bird flu does make its way across the country. We've now had H5 detections in every single state, and, in recent days, we've seen more outbreaks, including in suburban Melbourne, suburban Sydney, suburban Adelaide and suburban Hobart, so it is infiltrating the country.

I do want to reassure all members, though, that our government does continue to work with industry and with states and territories to support the H5 bird flu response. I can advise the House there have now been 498 bird flu events across the country, and we've also now received over 39,000 calls to the national bird flu hotline. Importantly, there remains no evidence of any H5 bird flu in our poultry or our agriculture system, and the risk to human health remains low.

We are taking this incredibly seriously, and we are investing over $270 million to help safeguard Australians against the H5 bird flu, including additional funding announced following the most recent National Cabinet meeting. I'm pleased to advise the House, there has also been significant progress on the H5 vaccine rollout in birds in Australia. Vaccines secured by the Commonwealth, after years of testing by leading scientists and our CSIRO experts, are being delivered to priority bird species as identified by our states and territories.

This is based on an agreed national framework, as I've indicated before, guided by the evidence and advice of the experts. I can advise the member for Deakin that the vaccination of the little penguins in his home state of Victoria is progressing very well. Indeed, we've now vaccinated over 1,500 little penguins in Victoria.

I can also advise the House that this is understood to be the world's largest vaccination program in wild birds across the planet. H5 vaccinations also commenced yesterday at the Cleland Wildlife Park in South Australia, including to regent parrots, red-tailed black cockatoos and other native bird species Just last week in my home state of Tasmania, I visited the Five Mile Beach Captive Management Facility to see the first vaccines in the orange-bellied parrots.

The vaccination trial on black cockatoos in Western Australia has commenced and is progressing, and I want to thank the team at the Perth Zoo for walking me through and welcoming me to see how they're going to continue their vaccine rollout there as well. The vaccinations in New South Wales are also continuing, including with little penguins there as well, the Carnaby's black cockatoos and the red-tailed black cockatoos.

Right across the country, these vaccinations are taking place. They are an important step in helping to protect some of our most treasured and endangered birds, but, as I've said previously, biosecurity remains our strongest defence. I want to again thank all Australians for reporting any sick or dead birds, not touching them, and go to birdflu.gov.au.