By GREG ANSLEY
CANBERRA - The New Zealand apple industry faces further delay in its bid to access the Australian market.
A key Senate committee report on the disputed application to end Australia's apple import ban has been postponed until the end of June, following the Federal Government's decision to launch a
new open-ended review.
The Government has also indicated no decision will be made until the second half of the year.
The 12-year bid by New Zealand to end the ban is bitterly opposed by the Australian industry and by unions, which claim transtasman imports would expose the nation to the risk of a devastating outbreak of fire blight disease.
The industry estimates an outbreak of the disease, which is endemic in New Zealand, would cost Australia $A6 billion ($7.2 billion) in its first six years, halving pear production and cutting apple production by 20 per cent.
A draft risk assessment released by Biosecurity Australia last October recommended the lifting of the ban - subject to stringent scientific conditions - thus reducing the Government's options without risking action in the World Trade Organisation.
But last month, Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said no decision would be made until yet another review had considered key scientific issues made in public submissions after the draft assessment was released.
Yesterday, Mr Truss declined to give Parliament a guarantee that no decision would be made until the Senate's rural and regional affairs committee had reported.
But he said Biosecurity Australia would now prepare a new document for discussion with key stakeholders and officials would continue to cooperate with the Senate inquiry.
He said that because of the volume of submissions already received, a final import risk analysis was not expected until the middle of the year.
