Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia David Littleproud says robots are being trialled for use in biosecurity monitoring in the NT

Transcript

Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia David Littleproud says robots are being trialled for use in biosecurity monitoring in the NT · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Few announcements happening in the Northern Territory at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: From the federal government's perspective, and joining us on the
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  Speaker 1: line right now is the Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia,
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  Speaker 1: David little Proud.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to your minister.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, good morning. Good to be back with you.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, good to have you on the show.
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  Speaker 1: Firstly, I understand that you're going to be testing these
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  Speaker 1: five remote controlled robots.
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  Speaker 2: Tell me a bit more about these, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Look, by A. Security is one of the biggest issues
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  Speaker 3: we have in agriculture at the moment. We're really concerned
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  Speaker 3: about some of the threats we've got, whether that be
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  Speaker 3: African flying fever or now lumpy skin that's in Indonesia.
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  Speaker 3: And what we're trying to do is increase our capacity
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  Speaker 3: to be able to do more surveillance and detexas. And
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  Speaker 3: to do that, we're not just putting more boots on
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  Speaker 3: the ground and more dogs on the ground. We're actually
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  Speaker 3: putting robotic dogs and even small robots that are allowing
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  Speaker 3: us to get into places and to inspect places on
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  Speaker 3: whether that be tractors or bulldozers or even on containers
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  Speaker 3: that we haven't been able to do with Starli before.
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  Speaker 3: So we're using imaging technology with these robots to get
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  Speaker 3: in the cracks and crevices to be able to have
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  Speaker 3: a look and to find any pest or or weed
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  Speaker 3: that may be on there that had cause us harm.
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  Speaker 3: So this is a big investment. We put out a
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  Speaker 3: billion dollars of the last two budgets in the bias
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  Speaker 3: que but Northern Australia is the front line of biosecurity
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  Speaker 3: and so today sixty six million dollars a learning just
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  Speaker 3: in more money for up here. What we see Northern
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  Speaker 3: Territory in particular has to be the centerpiece of our
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  Speaker 3: protection agriculture and the environment for that matter.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah right, it sounds like something out of a sci
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  Speaker 1: fi film. Minister, they're robotic dogs, but it sounds like
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  Speaker 1: they're needed.
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  Speaker 2: It is.
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  Speaker 3: And look, this is the thing is we're actually shifting
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  Speaker 3: towards technology. In fact, we're the first country in the
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  Speaker 3: world now that's using three D X ray technology with
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  Speaker 3: artificial intelligence. Every path of that goes to Australia post
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  Speaker 3: will now be scanned. And in fact we're moving towards
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  Speaker 3: digital declaration cards when you come into Australia about watching
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  Speaker 3: your bag. We're now starting with New Zealand a trial
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  Speaker 3: that will put your bags through a three D X
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  Speaker 3: ray scanner as well. And if it doesn't marry up
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  Speaker 3: with your decoration cards, my biosecurity officers will be sitting
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  Speaker 3: waiting for you at the airport before you even get
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  Speaker 3: off with a fine when we've lifted them from just
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  Speaker 3: over four hundred dollars to the mast we can which
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  Speaker 3: is just over two thy six hundred, and we've canceled these.
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  Speaker 3: In fact, last week we canceled a student's visa international
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  Speaker 3: student visa who had ten kilos of meat on him
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  Speaker 3: and we have sent him home and they are not
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  Speaker 3: welcome back to this country for another three years. He
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  Speaker 3: can do his study externally because foot and mouth disease
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  Speaker 3: would just wipe out the Northern Territory cattle industry. So
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  Speaker 3: you know, we're taking this seriously and we've got it.
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  Speaker 3: We've got to be tough, but we've got to have
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  Speaker 3: the technology to make sure we detect people. Then people
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  Speaker 3: can get around this by just simply declaring.
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  Speaker 1: So, Minister, where exactly is the trial which is happening
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  Speaker 1: in the territory.
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  Speaker 2: Where in the territories are happening out out of.
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  Speaker 3: The airport here. In fact, we just had the just
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  Speaker 3: had the road by trialed and the dog was here
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  Speaker 3: last week and it's now being taken to Brisbane to
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  Speaker 3: more trials. So each port is different and unique, and
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  Speaker 3: that's why the territory has has to be across not
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  Speaker 3: just airports but also the seaports. So we're trialing it
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  Speaker 3: up here because we believe this is sort of gives
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  Speaker 3: it the biggest test across multidiscipline for our biosecurity officers
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  Speaker 3: and because this is the front line, this really is
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  Speaker 3: now becoming the front line in the territory. So we're
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  Speaker 3: trialing these new innovations up here because we see that
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  Speaker 3: will be an investment. But we're also putting more men
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  Speaker 3: and women on the ground and we're going towards indigenous
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  Speaker 3: ranges more. And that's what this sixty million dollars will
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  Speaker 3: do is put more boots on the ground, more dogs
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  Speaker 3: on the ground. There'll be four dogs live dogs in
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  Speaker 3: these ones are that we bought up. But if the
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  Speaker 3: robot dogs work out as well, they'll complement and supplement
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  Speaker 3: those dogs. We won't get it of our labor doings.
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  Speaker 3: I'll get a big role to play.
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  Speaker 1: I was going to say, I hope the robot dogs
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  Speaker 1: aren't doing our canines out of a job, but it
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  Speaker 1: sounds as though they're all certainly required.
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  Speaker 3: No, and it's we're to send the robot dogs into
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  Speaker 3: areas that we don't want our live dogs, our labradors
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  Speaker 3: going to that aren't safe. So it's just protecting them.
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  Speaker 3: They're very expensive and but they can get into places
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  Speaker 3: that we can't send the labradors in because we're just
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  Speaker 3: concerned about their safety.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, right now, it's not the only announcement that you're
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  Speaker 1: making while you're in the territory. I know that one
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  Speaker 1: point one two five million dollars is going to be
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  Speaker 1: invested over three years to support the creation of adoption
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  Speaker 1: offices in Northern wa and into Drought Resilience Adoption and
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  Speaker 1: Innovation Hub.
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  Speaker 2: What is this all about.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, this is a real modernization of our agricultural innovation
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  Speaker 3: systems and particularly around drought. And what's happened is is
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  Speaker 3: over billion dollars a year of research dollars that paid
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  Speaker 3: from farmers through levies and through the Australian taxpayer to
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  Speaker 3: give our farmers the tool for research and development and
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  Speaker 3: Unfortunately what's happening is Dayton Territory governments used to have
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  Speaker 3: extension offices in their Department of Prime Industries that used
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  Speaker 3: to go out of the kitchen and explain to farmers
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  Speaker 3: what this research and science is and how they could
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  Speaker 3: make a dollar out of it. Unfortunately, they've been ripped away.
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  Speaker 3: And so what we've done is we've created eight innovation
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  Speaker 3: hubs around the country, one here in the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 3: And it's important that we then have not only the
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  Speaker 3: science and research being done in those put in those
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  Speaker 3: innovation hubs, but when we have someone sitting out at
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  Speaker 3: kitchen tables and town halls telling farmers about the opportunities
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  Speaker 3: that this science or technology may give them at the
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  Speaker 3: farm gate, building their profitability and resilience to further droughts
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  Speaker 3: or our per cyclone. So this is the sort of
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  Speaker 3: work where we believe if our job is simply to
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  Speaker 3: give the farmers the tools, then let them get on
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  Speaker 3: with the job of producing the best food and vibe
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  Speaker 3: in the world. But when you've got over a billion
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  Speaker 3: dollars a year that's going out there, if we get
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  Speaker 3: them out of the capital city universities and into universities
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  Speaker 3: in regional areas like Darwin. It really shifts the dial
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  Speaker 3: on our education system in giving a real signal to
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  Speaker 3: young people they can do a course in Darwin in
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  Speaker 3: agriculture and then have a career in it. Don't have
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  Speaker 3: to go to Melbourne or sit in your Brisbane to
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  Speaker 3: do it. They can stay up here and then you
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  Speaker 3: can be part of the ecosystem that will give our
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  Speaker 3: farmers the tools, and these extension officers will then take
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  Speaker 3: those tools out to the farmers and hopefully make them
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  Speaker 3: more profitable and continue to produce that food and fiber
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  Speaker 3: we enjoy.
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  Speaker 1: Now, as I'm sure you are aware of, this week
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  Speaker 1: here in Darwen, the Senate's inquiry hearings are taking place
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  Speaker 1: into fracking in the Beterloo basin. I know that there
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  Speaker 1: have been some pastorless in that hearing who voiced concerns
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  Speaker 1: about the fracking of the Beterloo. Is it something that
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  Speaker 1: you're keeping.
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  Speaker 2: An eye on?
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  Speaker 3: I am that I can speak from lived experience being
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  Speaker 3: a Queenslander. We actually had this thrust upon us back
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  Speaker 3: in around two thousand and seven back in Queensland where
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  Speaker 3: we had Coultine gas put on us in the shrap
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  Speaker 3: basin overnight. There was no process, approval process put in place.
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  Speaker 3: It was simply we were told that you're going to
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  Speaker 3: get cultine gas. And so a lot's been learned from that,
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  Speaker 3: and I think it's important that state and territory governments
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  Speaker 3: ensure that the regulatory framework they put around gas companies
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  Speaker 3: gives primary producers the confidence in those approval processes and
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  Speaker 3: in the application of the mining of those gases. So
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  Speaker 3: we've seen that there was particularly in my hometown, there
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  Speaker 3: was a real ansty with this when it first came out,
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  Speaker 3: but there is a coexistance that those exist there now,
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  Speaker 3: but it's one that needs constant monitoring by state and
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  Speaker 3: territory governments around particularly groundwater, and that's something that we
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  Speaker 3: want to make sure that the state territory governments are
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  Speaker 3: doing properly to give that confidence. And I think you
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  Speaker 3: know that's only right the past for us have concerns
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  Speaker 3: about this. There's nothing to be shamed in this because
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  Speaker 3: this is their livelihood we're playing with. Yeah, but we
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  Speaker 3: need to be able to have a process that they
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  Speaker 3: can back the science and they can back the regulatory
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  Speaker 3: process that supports this and have confidence in it. And
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  Speaker 3: that's what State and territory government should be able.
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  Speaker 1: To provide and are you confident that we'll be able
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  Speaker 1: to do that here in the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I've got to say, being fair on this, I'm
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  Speaker 3: got to say the Northern Territory went through a far
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  Speaker 3: more extensive approval process than what we did in Queensland,
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  Speaker 3: so it has gone through more regulatory and scientific and
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  Speaker 3: environmental hoops than what we got in Queensland. So I'm
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  Speaker 3: saying that the process that I would say I've seen
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  Speaker 3: so far has been far more, farwer than what we
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  Speaker 3: experience in Queensland, and that's a positive. But it's important
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  Speaker 3: that's continued to be reinforced and science should be the
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  Speaker 3: predicator of how we move forward with this and be
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  Speaker 3: able to provide that confidence to pastor us and to
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  Speaker 3: Indigenous Australians as well well.
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  Speaker 1: Minister David little Proud, we always appreciate your time when
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  Speaker 1: you're in the territory and made any idea when is
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: this election happening.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it has to be done by the twenty first
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  Speaker 3: of May, so if you want to have a better
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  Speaker 3: I reckonill either be the fourteenth or twenty first of May.
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  Speaker 1: Fourteenth or the twenty first of May, and we can
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  Speaker 1: Territorians expect there to be a bit in the budget
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  Speaker 1: for us next week when it sounded down.
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  Speaker 3: There will be. But you got to understand, we spend
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  Speaker 3: a lot of your money already in just getting us
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  Speaker 3: through this COVID crisis, and we've come out really well.
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  Speaker 3: Our economy is better than anyone else in the world.
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  Speaker 3: But someone's going to have to repay the bill, and
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  Speaker 3: governments don't repay bills unless they put up your taxes,
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  Speaker 3: and so we're not going to do that. And we
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  Speaker 3: believe that the best way to repay the debt is
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  Speaker 3: to grow the pie. And the only way to grow
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: the pie is let you decide how to spend your money,
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  Speaker 3: not a government from Canberra. So we'll try and get
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  Speaker 3: the balance right. But you know, we've got to reflect
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  Speaker 3: we've been through a lot over the last three years,
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  Speaker 3: whether it be fires, the drought, cyclizers in COVID. We're
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: still we're still swinging pretty hard as Australians. And you
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: know it's not just governments have done that. Australian people
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  Speaker 3: have stood tool and we're in a good space as
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: a country. We've got a lot to do there's a
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: lot of challenges ahead of us, but we're in a
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  Speaker 3: good space because we've done the hard yards well.
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  Speaker 1: David Little Proud, thank you very much for having a
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  Speaker 1: chat with us this morning.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: No doubt we'll talk to you again soon.
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  Speaker 3: Sounds good. Thank