BIOSECURITY CULL OF BEES MUST BE SUBJECT TO FULL PUBLIC DISCLOSURE

Without bees we are really up woop woop creek. Agriculture overwhelmingly is reliant on bees for propagation. No bees would mean Australia, like anywhere else in the world, would lose anywhere between half and two-thirds of its total crop yields. 

That's a mighty scary thought. Even though the Varroa mite plague, which emerged in Australia last year, and which has largely been contained to New South Wales, has not completely wiped out the beekeeping industry yet, it's certainly not impossible that it could happen.

Absolute vigilance to do with such a massive biosecurity threat is imperative. But it's still no excuse for any bureaucratic overreach which potentially will result in the "wrong bee hives" being destroyed. 

Meaning bee hives that have not been properly inspected and assessed by legitimate biosecurity officers to "scientifically determine" if the mite is present in them or not. 

There is growing discontent and anger being vented by many commercial beekeepers in relation to the totalitarian destruction of beehives in certain areas by biosecurity officers, without them even requiring a court order to enter a property and do so. It's certainly a recipe for "biosecurity overkill".

Every agriculture minister in Australia, including the federal one, Murray Watt, needs to adopt the position that unlike fire ants, unlike feral foxes and rabbits, the kill everything approach with bees is not an option. The biosecurity threat posed by Varroa mite has to be dealt with but not at the expense of Australian agriculture.