Scott Morrison says future of Adelaide Zoo pandas is a low priority

The future of Adelaide Zoo’s top attraction, pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni, has been dismissed as a low priority by the Prime Minister.

• Adelaide’s giant pandas set to leave SA
• Federal Labor’s panda promise

The future of Adelaide Zoo’s top attraction, pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni, has been dismissed as a low priority by the Prime Minister.

After another failed breeding attempt, Zoos SA last week turned its attention to ensuring the pandas are not sent back to China once their 10-year lease expires in November.

The Advertiser revealed Federal Environment Minister Melissa Price was “considering” the zoo’s request.

On Sunday Labor announced that, if elected, it would pay $1.3 million a year to keep the pandas here five more years.

But Prime Minister Scott Morrison — in an attempt to reinforce his commitment to the voters of Queensland as a federal election looms — said it was not a priority.

“I’ve been talking to (Premier) Steven Marshall about this and we’ll have more to say about this at an appropriate time, as will he,” Mr Morrison said.

Adelaide Zoo's giant panda Fu Ni in her enclosure. Picture: AAP / Emma Brasier

“But I will simply say this: My priority at the moment, actually with all due respect to the people in South Australia and pandas, is cattle lying dead on properties in north Queensland. That’s where my focus is right now. If the Labor Party wants to focus on pandas that’s fine, I’ll focus on dead cattle on the ground in north Queensland.”

The Coalition faces a fight at the ballot boxes in Queensland, which has 12 seats with margins under 5 per cent, compared with just one, Boothby, in South Australia.

SA Labor Senator Penny Wong said it was appalling that Mr Morrison was playing politics with the terrible floods in Queensland.

“If (the PM) actually listened to South Australians he might understand why (Labor’s) announcement matters to … our tourism industry,” Senator Wong said.

“We all stand with those affected by these disasters and he knows that.”

Zoos SA acting CEO Sarah Brown said retaining the pandas was not only important for tourism.

“It’s an investment into conservation,” Ms Brown said.

“So what we do globally is we make a real difference in making sure that the giant panda species doesn’t become extinct.”

Originally published as Scott Morrison says future of Adelaide Zoo pandas is a low priority