QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Ms COLLINS (Franklin—Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) (15:10): I want to thank the member for Bass. As a fellow Tasmanian, I know she has been keenly watching the H5 bird flu incursion as it's come across the country and across our home state as I know many members in this place have, and that's why our government has been acting over the past two years to prepare and respond.

That's why we've backed that in with more than $270 million to ensure that we are as prepared as we can be and able to respond to the H5 bird flu. But sadly I do need to update the member for Bass in relation to the advice I've received from the Tasmanian government today that H5 bird flu is suspected to have reached Macquarie Island, south of Tasmania. There's been suspected H5 in a kelp gull and a southern elephant seal.

These are samples that were collected by researchers from the Australian Antarctic Division during their most recent mission and immediately tested in the Tasmanian state laboratory following the mission's return this week. Further testing will now be undertaken at the CSIRO laboratory, and we'll provide updates as those results become available. If confirmed, these would be the first cases of H5 bird flu on Macquarie Island.

Whilst concerning, it's not unexpected that the H5 bird flu would reach Macquarie Island, particularly given what we've seen in the other subantarctic islands. Importantly, I have been advised that other species that were sampled—such as the skuas, the giant petrels and the penguins—have tested negative, and there were no reports of any unusual illnesses or mass mortalities in wildlife before the personnel departed Macquarie Island late last week.

I can also tell the House that we've now had 706 H5 bird flu events nationally in our wildlife with no detection still on our agriculture or poultry systems and that the risk to human health remains low. Of the 706 events, we've had 330 in South Australia, 243 in Victoria, 70 in New South Wales, 50 in Tasmania, 10 in Western Australia, two in Queensland and one in Jervis Bay.

There have been over 62,000 calls to our emergency hotline and over half a million views on birdflu.gov.au. I again want to thank Australians for reporting sick or dead birds and other animals. In some better news, I'm pleased to advise the House that we've now agreed with the South Australian government that we will vaccinate the little penguin colony on Granite Island as guided by our agreed national framework.

As I indicated earlier this week, there have now been over 3,000 H5 bird flu vaccines administered to priority wildlife species nationwide as part of our now more than 12,000 birds that we've identified for vaccination that will be vaccinated according to the advice from our experts. As I've said, this is the largest vaccination effort of its kind undertaken globally.