Victorian farmers call for FMD travel restrictions in Colac protest

Victorian farmers have urged the Federal Government to implement a temporary travel ban with Indonesia at a rally in the state’s southwest.

Victorian farmers have urged the Federal Government to implement a temporary travel ban with Indonesia following a foot and mouth disease outbreak.

More than 100 farmers gathered in Colac’s Memorial Square to call for the border closure.

Addressing the crowd on the back of a ute, rally organiser Peter Delahunty said the risk of FMD entering Australia was a real and present danger to agriculture.

He noted that Melbourne Zoo had recently imposed visitor restrictions due to FMD biosecurity risks.

“We request the Federal Government implement a 120 day travel ban for non-essential travel with Indonesia,” Mr Delahunty said.

“We want to offer Indonesia every assistance to get FMD under control, building on the $14 million already promised.

“This is not an attack on our friends in Indonesia. This is about refining biosecurity both in Australia and Indonesia so we can get this shared economic risk under control.”

State Coalition MPs Richard Riordan and Bev McArthur attended the rally.

Mr Riordan backed calls for temporary travel restrictions.

“The economic impact on southwest Victoria if FMD got past our borders would be worse than the past two years of Covid, as bad as that was,” the Polwarth MP said.

Mrs McArthur cited a friend’s recollection of the UK FMD outbreak in 2001, urging Australia to learn from the mistakes of the past.

“We call on the ministers for agriculture at a state and federal level to act and act now,” the Western Victoria MP said.

“This is a rally calling for immediate action, necessary measures to keep foot and mouth disease out of Australia.”

FMD was detected in Bali last month and Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt met with his Indonesian counterparts to discuss Jakarta’s FMD response a fortnight ago.

On Monday, Senator Watt said a border closure would only be enacted if the Australian government lost confidence in Indonesia’s ability to contain FMD.

“We have had a consistent position about this since day one and it’s a consistent position with industry,” the Agriculture Minister said.

“All of the farm groups agree we shouldn’t be closing our borders and that that response is over the top compared to the risk in place at the moment.

“In terms of the threshold, the advice to me from our biosecurity experts is we would only consider closing the borders to Indonesia if we completely lost confidence that they weren’t doing anything to manage the outbreak.

“And that is not the case.”

Mr Delahunty said the National Farmers’ Federation’s position to keep borders open was “out of step with average farmers”.

“We’re urging the Government to enact a 120-day travel ban. If the situation gets under control in the meantime, after 30 days or 60 days or whatever timeframe, then the ban can be lifted,” he said.

“Investing in FMD control in Indonesia is the right thing to do. We need to help Indonesia in every which way possible. But we’ve also got to take the insurance policy to keep this disease from wrecking the dairy industry, wrecking agriculture here in Australia.”