Minister for Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce has announced that the Government will deliver additional assistance to banana growers following the detection of Panama disease, Tropical Race 4, in Queensland, including financial compensation to growers affected by the initial response as well as funding to develop detailed mapping of major banana producing regions. “The Australian Government, together with the Queensland Government and the Australian Banana Growers’ Council, is making compensation funding available to affected growers, who will receive reimbursement for costs that they incurred while not being able to harvest and market fruit as a result of the initial emergency bio-security measures put in place,” Minister Joyce said.
Minister Joyce went on to explain that that the Government had now provided more than one million dollars as part of response efforts. Joyce added that the measures now committed by the Australian Government to date include:

• Financial compensation to affected growers – with final costs to be determined
• $366,000 for detailed mapping of major banana producing regions
• $210,000 to the Queensland Government
• $95,000 spent deploying Department of Agriculture staff and bio-security experts from South Australia, New South Wales and Plant Health Australia to boost on-the-ground effort
• $330,000 to the Australian Banana Growers Council to extend its specialist bio-security officer programme and to engage international experts in Panama disease.

“It is essential that the growers who first reported suspected outbreaks of Panama disease on their own properties are not disadvantaged financially for selflessly protecting the wider industry.” Minister Joyce commented “The Australian Government is pleased to be supporting this proposal from the Australian Banana Growers’ Council to deliver financial assistance to these growers, and thanks the Council for its strong leadership, cooperation and initiative in responding to this very serious disease.”