Scott Morrison announces new laws to punish those who upload fake fruit contamination posts
A 12-YEAR-OLD girl has been caught putting a needle in a strawberry at a NSW school as police investigate 100 copycat cases of fruit sabotage across the country. It comes as prices plummet and Deputy Premier John Barilaro calls on families not to desert fruit growers.
NSW
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A 12-YEAR-OLD girl has been caught putting a needle in a strawberry at a NSW school as prices plummet and police investigate 100 copycat cases of fruit sabotage across the country.
It comes as NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro called on families to support fruit growers — saying “now is not the time to desert them”.
The girl placed the needle in the strawberry and showed her friends at the lower Blue Mountains school.
Police were called in when another student told teachers. The girl was then interviewed at her home and claimed she didn’t know how the needle got into the fruit.
Only after police left did she confess to her parents that it was a prank. Officers later returned to the house and the girl made “full admissions”.
She will be dealt by way of youth caution.
Police said copycats and pranksters were fuelling he strawberry crisis which has seen millions of tonnes of fruit dumped threatening the future of many farmers.
Needles have also been discovered in an apple and a banana.
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The NSW Nationals leader said he could not understand the malicious behaviour.
“This is a deliberate attempt to either one, destroy the industry or to hurt mankind,” he said. “Could you imagine as a parent offering fruit to your kids and something like this not being discovered until it was too late?”
Mr Barilaro encouraged families to remain vigilant but said the worst thing they could do was to stop supporting growers.
While the Queensland summer strawberry season is drawing to a close, growers in Coffs Harbour, the Sydney Basin and South Coast are coming into season and farmers stand to lose millions of dollars
“What we’re saying is we’ve got to be vigilant and check our produce but let’s not hurt the farmers who have worked all season to get their produce ready,” he said.
Mr Barilaro said consumers were rightly concerned but said they now had an opportunity to “get ahead of the curve”.
“It’s not just about the dollar value around it, it’s actually more to do with the wellbeing of those farmers (who are) just losing hope,” he said.
“They are tough images at a time when we already know the drought itself has had so much of an impact.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison met the heads of the Australian Federal Police and Border Force yesterday before he announced new laws to criminalise fake fruit contamination posts on social media which would now come with a 10-year jail term.
“It’s not a joke, it’s not funny,” Mr Morrison said. “You are putting the livelihoods of hardworking Australians at risk and you are scaring children. If you do that sort of thing in this country we will come after you … you are a coward and a grub.”
Supermarkets across Sydney are dealing the with strawberry crisis in their own ways.
Coles in Turramurra had no strawberries available to purchase on Wednesday morning.
Harris Farm in Lindfield had a variety of strawberries available, which were all accompanied by a “strawberry status” notice.
It read, “Harris Farm does not buy strawberries from farms that have been involved with unsafe fruit. As per NSW authority advice, we recommend all fruit be cut and washed as precautionary measure prior to consumption in light of the recent events.”
Other supermarkets including Woolworths in Gordon and IGA in Lindfield had punnets of strawberries for as low as $1.33 each.