Australia’s biosecurity “under pressure and fragile”

A Senate committee has found biosecurity threats are placing the nation’s biosecurity system under increasing pressure.

Australia’s pre-border measures have been “largely effective” but the system is under pressure and fragile, a Senate committee has found

Australia’s response to an incursion of the deadly bee pest varroa mite in June and the recent threat of foot and mouth disease as it spread across Indonesia were the subjects of a wide ranging federal government inquiry.

Dr Chris Parker with the Secretary of The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Andrew Metcalfe during one of the Senate committee’s hearing in Canberra. Picture: NCA Newswire/Gary Ramage

In its report handed down on Thursday, the rural and regional affairs and transport committee found that while largely effective to date, the nation’s biosecurity system was under increasing pressure from more frequent threats, more mobile populations, and resourcing and capability constraints.

Twenty-nine recommendations were made, with the first taking aim at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the NSW Department of Primary Industries’ lack of clarity about the potential origins of the varroa mite incursion.

The pest was discovered in two sentinel hives at the Port of Newcastle, but it is widely believed the incursion occurred at the RAAF base at Williamstown. The surrounding area had the highest density of infected hives, “with clear evidence of natural spread across the area”, the report said.

It recommended the DAFF publicly reports its findings from investigations into the incursion, and noted its disappointment that under resourcing of the sentinel hive program remains a matter of concern.

Williamtown Beekeeper David Vial checking his hives in July. Picture: Nick Cubbin

The committee said enhanced restrictions on the importation of unregulated meat products should have been made earlier “given the risks posed by the import of unregulated meat products potentially carrying diseases, including FMD”.

National Farmers’ Federation chief executive Tony Mahar welcomed the report as a way of bolstering biosecurity preparedness.

“We welcome the recommendations, especially the call for sustainable biosecurity funding, adding further weight to what the government is developing and what has been the missing piece in our strong yet complex biosecurity system,” he said.

Other recommendations included:

A REVIEW of the government’s food import risk frameworks;

THE development of a national approach to interstate border control;

A COMMITMENT to sustainable biosecurity funding.