Mr Kelvin Thomson asked the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, upon notice, on 7 October 2003:

(1)  Are Australian rivers, lakes, and other waterways monitored to assess whether they are contaminated by pesticides; if so, (a) which agencies carry out this monitoring, (b) does the monitoring examine whether the contamination levels threaten their suitability for drinking water or for fish habitat, and (c) which waterways in Australia have been affected by pesticides or chemical contaminants.

(2)  Are Australian soil micro-organisms, Australian fish, Australian birds or Australian mammals tested to assess the effects of pesticide use with a view to establishing safe limits for pesticide use, similar to the work by the United States department of Agriculture and the United States Environment Protection Authority.

(3)  What are the run off characteristics for commonly used chemicals on various Australian soil types.

(4)  What are the soil absorption rates for Australian soil types for commonly used pesticides.

Dr Kemp —The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

(1)(a)State agencies, research institutions and industry bodies undertake monitoring for pesticides in water. The Commonwealth has allocated funds from 2005-06 for a more comprehensive national program of monitoring chemicals, including pesticides, in the Australian environment. (b) The National Water Quality Management Strategy 2002 (revised) Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality provide a methodology for deriving locally applicable trigger values (which if exceeded should trigger management action) to protect the environmental values of a water body. For protection of an environmental value of aquatic ecosystem protection, ideal testing would involve collecting data on local species. However, this data is very rarely available (see answer to (2) below) and the Guidelines provide a set of default trigger values, exceedences of which should trigger investigation. (c) As the Australian Government does not keep monitoring data on pesticides, the answer to this question should be sought from State and Territory agencies.

(2)  There are some programs currently developing ecotoxicological test methods with Australian species (generally aquatic invertebrates and some fish), including those run by the Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist (ERISS). Work in this area indicates that Australian species generally do not differ greatly in their sensitivity to a broad range of toxicants, although some unique situations may arise, for example with the extremely soft waters of tropical northern Australia, or high temperature waters. Testing on local mammals and birds is forbidden or strongly discouraged in those States which have previously carried out toxicity testing, and testing on fish has also been discouraged for animal welfare reasons.

Most testing on Australian organisms has been done using aquatic crustaceans and fish.

(3), (4)  Specific chemical characteristics are known to the Department of the Environment and Heritage through commercial-in-confidence information provided to the Department by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA). The Department of the Environment and Heritage assesses this information and provides the APVMA with written reports and advice regarding the potential for harmful environmental effects of pesticides (when used as directed). The Department is not able to disclose commercial-in-confidence information. However the APVMA's website www.apvma.gov.au makes various chemical-specific reports available which can contain some of the information sought. Additionally the APVMA can make its technical reports available on request.