Victorian Government announces agriculture biosecurity law changes

New state government laws are set to increase penalties and fines for agricultural biosecurity breaches. See the details.

Penalties for people not abiding by farm biosecurity management rules are set to double, under Victorian Government reforms revealed today.

State Agriculture Minister Ros Spence will today confirm new laws to increase penalties and fines for those who illegally remove or replace identification tags on livestock, and do not follow biosecurity and traceability requirements.

As part of the Biosecurity Legislation Amendment (Incident Response) Bill 2023, Victoria Police will be recognised as livestock inspectors to better investigate farm-related crimes.

“A strong biosecurity system is critical to Victoria’s $17.5 billion agriculture sector and the significant contribution it makes to our community,” Ms Spence said.

“This bill will make sure we can prepare and respond to the outbreak of pests, weeds and emergency animal diseases– and safeguarding our biosecurity systems.”

Victorian Agriculture Minister Ros Spence. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Other additions to the act announced by Ms Spence today include improving the administration of livestock disease compensation for responsible livestock owners.

Inspectors will also be granted extra power to direct vehicles in emergency animal disease outbreaks.

In July 2022, the Victorian Government announced an Emergency Animal Disease Taskforce to plan for a rapid response if an outbreak were to occur in Victoria, following the detection of lumpy skin disease in Indonesia.

In November 2022, the taskforce became an interdepartmental committee — a grouping of top bureaucrats and members of relevant statutory authorities.

“Our Emergency Animal Disease Preparedness Interdepartmental Committee meets monthly to oversee our preparedness efforts - which includes planning, scenario exercises and bolstering our workforce.,” a government spokesman said.