Farmers have a beef with Anthony Albanese’s ‘move to woo Donald Trump’

The Albanese government is calling it a science-based biosecurity shift; beef farmers suspect that’s ‘bulldust’ and the greenlight for more US imports is about securing a meeting with Donald Trump.

WA Farmers livestock president Geoff Pearson with some of his cattle on his property at Badgingarra. Picture: Colin Murty

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Australian beef producers fear the Albanese government’s decision to loosen biosecurity restrictions on US imports is “dangerous”, risking the introduction of “devastating” diseases such as mad cow.

Cattle Australia and peak state industry bodies are demanding an independent review of the decision, which means Australia will accept beef from the US sourced from Canada and Mexico but slaughtered in the US.

Some beef producers accused the government of placing their $14bn export industry at risk for the sake of facilitating a meeting between the Prime Minister and US President Donald Trump.

Other meat sectors, particularly pork, expressed concerns they might be next for relaxed biosecurity controls, unravelling a system that keeps safe Australia’s $82bn red meat and livestock trade.

“We fully support open trade, open access, minimal barriers, but if a biosecurity issue exists, then we need to know what the science-based review is,” Cattle Australia deputy chair Adam Coffey told The Australian.

Mr Coffey said the decision set a “dangerous precedent” and called on the government to release the detailed justification for the change – something Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said was “not what is done usually”.

The US has had beef access into Australia since 2019, but the announcement on Thursday removes a key impediment, allowing beef sourced from cattle born in Canada or Mexico and legally imported and slaughtered in the US.

Mr Coffey, a Queensland beef producer, said there was lack of information to judge whether bio­security and traceability measures were sufficient and an independent inquiry was justified. A similar inquiry was held after the decision to allow Thai prawns to be imported into Australia, he said.

The industry was “dis­appointed” that it had little warning of the decision. “If this is the benchmark for industry consultation, then it’s going to be a wild ride for the next few years,” he said.

West Australian beef producer and WA Farmers livestock president Geoff Pearson said mad cow disease had been detected in Canadian and Mexican beef processed in the US in the past.

“It’s game over if that gets into our cattle herd and our products – it closes down a very valuable industry,” Mr Pearson told The Australian. “It would be catastrophic. Having to burn herds of livestock is not pretty. You are potentially threatening the Australian beef and meat industry with a breach of biosecurity or outbreak for a market that is not necessary and that Australia doesn’t need.

“(The US) doesn’t have a robust system like ours for traceability (of product). We need to see the science and see they’ve fixed their traceability systems and their processing compliance … which didn’t meet regulations.”

Mr Pearson, who runs 15,000 Angus beef cattle near Badgin­garra, about 200km north of Perth, questioned the motivation and timing of the announcement.

“Is it around the political side of things, with our Prime Minister meeting with Trump very soon?” he said. “Is it to smooth over the relationship? That’s concerning.”

US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins added to these suspicions by claiming the decision as “yet another example of the kind of market access the President ­negotiates to bring America into a new golden age”.

In March, Mr Trump erroneously claimed Australia “bans” US beef. “They’re wonderful people, and wonderful everything — but they ban American beef,” he said.

Ms Collins said the decision followed a “rigorous”, five-year assessment by departmental offici­als, including in the US.

“We are assured the supply chain and the traceability and the safety of any food coming into Australia is safe,” she said.

“This is a decision based on science.”

She said government had been “keeping the industry informed the entire way”.