Title: Report concludes branched broomrape cannot be eradicated
[ABC South East SA June 23, 2011]-- South Australia's Agriculture Minister Michael O'Brien will push for a national fund to contain a parasitic weed in the Murray Mallee after a report found it cannot be eradicated. Branched broomrape was found near Bowhill in 1992 and some properties have been quarantined for more than a decade now. The report recommends abandoning eradication programs in favour of containment. Mr O'Brien says the weed will become a national problem unless it can be contained.
"We don't have a funding regime, a national funding agreement, in place to deal with containment and I'm hoping within a couple of months we'll see a proposal that will allow us to move from eradication to containment with all of the states chipping in," he said.
"I'll be looking at the industry groups that are the beneficiaries, which are the grain and horticultural industries on a national basis, to start making a contribution."
A former state MP, Peter Lewis, says he helped Labor form government in South Australia in 2002 after a pledge to eradicate branched broomrape. "We eradicated TB in people, we've eradicated it in livestock, we can eradicate broomrape," he declared.
Mr Lewis says a lack of political will is to blame.
