www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

A new $230 million biosciences research centre will be built in Victoria to
develop new crop varieties and help protect the state's farming sector from
threats such as exotic disease outbreaks and bioterrorism by Orietta
Guerrera .
The research centre - the centrepiece of the Government's $240 million
injection over four years into Victorian agriculture outlined in yesterday's
budget - will be built in conjunction with La Trobe University at its
Bundoora campus.

The Government has committed $180 million to the project, while the
university will spend up to $50 million.

Local and international researchers will work on bioscience technology and
safeguards at the facility, and develop new crops such as drought-tolerant
wheat and canola.

It also comes at a time when the Government is set to consider whether to
lift its moratorium on GM crops due to expire next year.

Scientists from Department of Primary Industries facilities in Frankston,
Attwood, Knoxfield and Werribee will be relocated to the new centre once
it's completed, with the Frankston and Knoxfield offices to close. A
timeline has yet to be finalised.

Treasurer John Brumby yesterday pledged that the Government will support the
regions as they recovered from the devastating bushfires, and continued to
battle the impacts of drought.

"The Government stood by our farmers and rural communities in 2002 when it
didn't rain," Mr Brumby told Parliament. "We stood by them again in 2006
when it didn't rain. And we will continue to stand by our rural
communities."

Regional tourism will receive $23 million including $5 million for regional
airports, while the Government will spend an initial $38 million to get a
$188 million upgrade of ageing and inefficient Goulburn irrigation
infrastructure started this year.

The budget also delivers on the $138 million bushfire package previously
announced by the Government after summer blazes razed more than 1.1 million
hectares of public land and 51 houses.

However, the budget papers revealed that the Department of Sustainability
and Environment will again fail to meet its bushfire fuel-reduction target.

Authorities expect to burn only 90,000 hectares through its burn-offs
program this financial year - well down on its target of 130,000 hectares,
but almost double the 49,000 hectares it achieved last year.

[www.theage.com.au]