Biosecurity threats won’t wait for Labor’s ‘political agenda’

AGRICULTURAL leaders have urged Labor to deliver its biosecurity election promise, saying exotic diseases won't wait for the party to work through its political agenda.

But the Agriculture Minister has indicated the government was still considering how to rollout a long-term sustainable funding model to fund the nation's biosecurity system.

For years, the agriculture sector has been urging governments to commitment on-going funding to biosecurity, as the number of threats continue to grow.

National Farmers' Federation chief executive Tony Mahar said Labor already had "runs on the board" with its handling of the Indonesian foot and mouth disease, and the endorsement of the National Biosecurity Strategy.

"The timing is absolutely right for the government to demonstrate in this budget a long-term commitment," Mr Mahar said.

"Everything is in place. If they don't do it now, when is the perfect time?"

GrainGrowers chief executive David McKeon said historically it had been hard to get biosecurity on the agenda and it made sense to use "this opportunity to continue the momentum".

"The biosecurity threats facing ag are not going to sit around and wait a couple of years for the government to work through its agenda," Mr McKeon said.

The former government initially proposed an importer levy on all container freight to fund the nation's biosecurity system, but scrapped the idea after objections from importers, which were compounded by the economic impact of COVID-19.

The government then proposed a user-pay cost-recovery system, that would see importers pay in proportion to how much they use government-provided biosecurity services.

Nationals leader and former agriculture minister David Littleproud revealed one of the last orders he gave the department before the election was to finalise the consultation process, so the user-pay model could be implemented.

"I had approve in the budget process for the cost-recovery measure... I wasn't able to get in into the April budget, but it was approved for MYEFO [the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook]," Mr Littleproud said.

"A lot of that work had already been done, and there should have been nothing stopping the department from completing that. It's whether the new minister held the department to account to complete those instructions."

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt indicated the government was still consulting with stakeholders, and slammed the previous government for the botched the introduction of a biosecurity levy.

"They were more interested in the announcement than talking to industry... we will not make the same mistakes," Mr Watt said.

"We understand this is a complex matter that requires careful consideration and time to engage in meaningful conversations with stakeholders."

Mr Watt said biosecurity would remain a key focus of the upcoming budget, and the government was committed to delivering long-term sustainable funding to strengthen the biosecurity system.

Source: Jamieson Murphy, Farmonline National, 5 October 2022