Biosecurity checkpoint closed in favour of ‘stakeholder engagement’

The closure of Queensland‘s northernmost biosecurity checkpoint has raised concerns about the country’s vulnerability to pests and diseases coming in from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Veterinarians inject the second phase of the mouth and nail disease (FMD) vaccine against farm animals in Bandung.

The closure of Queensland‘s northernmost biosecurity checkpoint has raised concerns about the country’s vulnerability to pests and diseases coming in from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Queensland farming lobby group AgForce has called on the state government to reconsider its decision, warning it left Australia’s north “defenceless”.

The government says it has closed the facility in favour of a new biosecurity strategy for the ­region focusing on “stakeholder engagement, education and partnership”.

Australia has been on alert since foot-and-mouth disease and lumpy skin disease spread to Indonesia last year. Both diseases, if ­detected in Australia, could wipe out livestock industries.

Queensland’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries has said it will close the Cape York Biosecurity Centre near Coen, 550km northwest of Cairns, on June 30.

“It is simply madness to close this facility,” AgForce chief executive Michael Guerin said.

“At this point in time, with foot-and-mouth disease and lumpy skin disease biosecurity incidents in Indonesia, African swine fever in Papua New Guinea, plus vectors that could come down the Cape from Papua New Guinea, it makes absolutely zero sense.

“Without a solid movement control checkpoint in Cape York, an emergency animal disease outbreak on one of the Torres Strait islands could have a catastrophic impact on red meat exports.”

Closure of the facility leaves the department without any physical infrastructure on Cape York. There are two biosecurity officers north of Cairns, one in Bamaga and the other on Thursday Island, but they do not operate a vehicle checkpoint like the Coen facility.

The Queensland government has defended the decision to close the centre, saying it had employed more biosecurity officers in the north in the past year and that the two staff at Coen would be “redeployed” within the department.

“The future of the CYBC has been under review as part of the Far Northern Biosecurity Initiative and efforts to determine the best use of resources to protect far north Queensland’s biosecurity against the evolving and ever-changing threats,” a Biosecurity Queensland spokesman said.