The National Carp Control Plan (NCCP) that will determine whether or not a carp herpes virus should be released into Australian waterways has been delivered to the federal government.
It comes after years of delays, which the Agriculture Department described as "unavoidable and unforeseeable" blaming the Coronavirus pandemic among other reasons.
The plan has been developed by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) to assess the feasibility of using Cyprinid herpesvirus 3 as a control method for the pest species.
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt and his state and federal counterparts are yet to see the plan and no decision has been made on the potential future release of the virus at this stage.
Plan not yet public
The NCCP, which was previously criticised for a lack of transparency under the leadership of the former government, is not currently available to the public.
The department said the plan would be made publicly available on its website "once all documentation meets accessibility requirements and all of the research papers have been finalised by their respective authors".
But Shadow Agriculture Minister and leader of the National Party, David Littleproud, said Mr Watt needed to bypass the bureaucracy and step up to release the plan.
"The community needs to see this report, we need to have confidence in this report, it shouldn't be anything controversial," he said.
"I just have no idea why the Labor government won't release the report immediately so everyone can see it, work through it, and have an opinion."
Mr Littleproud, who was formerly the minister in charge of the NCCP when the Liberal Nationals were in government, delayed the delivery of the plan himself, by granting the FRDC extra time to complete additional scientific work.
"I think it was reasonable [at the time], but the extra scientific research has been done now and enough time has passed. It's time to deliver the plan," he said.
"The interim recommendations the FRDC provided to me was the virus would eradicate around 96 per cent [of carp].
"But there were issues around the speed of rolling it out to make sure there wasn't unintended environmental consequences of fish rotting in the system causing water issues."
In a statement, the Agriculture Department said "all jurisdictions and the Australian government will need time to consider the NCCP, which includes reviewing the plan and associated documentation and considering next steps".
"[This] includes the Environment and Invasives Committee and the National Biosecurity Committee … and the Minister will only consider it once it has been reviewed by the relevant committees.
"Any potential future release of the carp virus will not occur without further consideration, agreement from all relevant jurisdictions, and extensive stakeholder consultation," the department confirmed.
