Blight fear sparks city rally

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - The Victorian rural city of Shepparton will shut for two hours on Tuesday in protest against the proposed lifting of bans on New Zealand apple imports.

City businesses and unions have joined fruitgrowers, canners, coolstores, trucking companies and other rural industries in a call to shut their doors and give workers time off for a mass rally.

Spurred by fears that imported Kiwi apples will introduce fire blight disease and destroy the pear industry that has allowed Shepparton to reverse the general decline of rural Australia, protesters will march to a meeting that will be addressed by federal quarantine officials.

Although the Government would now have difficulty in refusing access to New Zealand apples - almost certainly triggering action at the World Trade Organisation - the protest will further unnerve Coalition backbenchers.

Rural anger at Government policies led to the rise of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party at the last federal election, and continues to be reflected in problems facing the National Party, the junior Government partner, in marginal seats.

Rising petrol prices and Prime Minister John Howard's refusal to provide post-GST tax relief are also adding to the Government's problems.

Shepparton, with a population of about 25,000, is a thriving community at the heart of the big pear-growing region of Goulburn Valley, with two large canneries and associated industries.

About half the city's workforce is employed directly or indirectly in pear growing and processing.

Australian apple and pear growers reject New Zealand assurances that there is almost no chance of its endemic fire blight disease spreading across the Tasman in cases of apples.

Independent studies commissioned by the industry claim the introduction of fire blight would destroy the pear industry and severely damage apple crops, costing Australia $A1 billion ($1.3 billion) in the first six years.

The industry says about 90 per cent of the pear orchards around Shepparton would be destroyed.

Businessman David Jobling, one of the organisers of Tuesday's protest, said that closing Shepparton was symbolic of what would happen to the city and many other country towns if fire blight entered Australia with New Zealand apples.

The fruit industry did not believe the safeguards for apple imports would provide enough security against fire blight, he said.

"We don't believe enough work has been done on the way fire blight travels, on the distance it can travel, and on the controls inside the orchards that they're suggesting for New Zealand.

"Businesses came to us and said, 'What can we do to help,' and we believe the majority of them will be closed from noon until 2 pm next Tuesday," said Mr Jobling.

"This is not a trade issue with New Zealand. This is a fight against fire blight."