Nationals Member for Ovens Valley Tim McCurdy recently spoke in Parliament about the Victorian Government’s decision to take $2.5 million dollars of funding away from communities like Cobram, Shepparton and Mooroopna because the reduction of fruit fly is a shared responsibility.
In Parliament Mr McCurdy said, “The fruit fly in our regions starts in the towns, and our farming communities do a great job of controlling it.
“It starts in a vegetable patch or in a plum tree and suddenly hits our local farms. But our farmers can only do so much.”
He continued, “If this is a shared responsibility between our local communities and the government, then why is the Victorian Government cutting another $47.8 million cut to our agriculture sector and specifically $2.5 million from our fruit fly programs?
“This does not help; this instead makes it harder for our communities.”