November 27, 2024

 

Cattle industry leaders in Australia demand stronger penalties for biosecurity violations

 

 

Australian cattle industry leaders have called for tougher penalties for biosecurity breaches, saying insignificant fines are not good enough to protect the $80 billion agriculture sector.

 

"Not slaps on the wrist, not warnings," Cattle Australia president Garry Edwards told a session focusing on biosecurity at the recent Cattle Connect conference near Tamworth. "The more we have significant penalties attached to this the greater the deterrent."

 

More than 303,000 biosecurity risk items were stopped at Australian borders in 2023, moderator Romy Carey from the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association told the session. 22,000 international travellers were fined over the same period for biosecurity breaches, with 22 of those having visas cancelled.

 

The audience was also told that the maximum fine for a biosecurity breach had recently been lifted to $6,260.

 

National Farmers Federation director David Connolly said that level of deterrent did not pass the "pub test".

 

"The fines and the disincentive to do the wrong thing is just not high enough," he remarked.

 

Connolly said he was "extremely uncomfortable" about the number of regular illegal incursions that occurred across property boundaries in northern Australia.

 

"I think there are significant biosecurity threats in these actions, and there needs to be consequences for these illegal actions," he added. "…the (Australian) government needs to be sending strong messages around the penalties that they're delivering."

 

Edwards and Connolly said they believed most producers would support the Australian government implementing tougher fines and tougher regulations to deter biosecurity breaches.

 

Connolly said he believed there was also a need for greater resourcing of biosecurity surveillance across northern Australia.

 

 - Beef Central