THE Palaszczuk Labor government is again frozen-at-the-wheel, this time with its handling of biosecurity – one of the most critical functions of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.
In less than three months Queensland’s new biosecurity laws will take effect. On July 1, 2016, major changes will come into play covering a range of issues including disease management and notifications. Many producers have little idea of what it all means and what they’ll need to do to meet their ‘general biosecurity obligations’.
It is a worry because Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Leanne Donaldson has been all-but silent on this and seems to be taking the same approach she did with the tick-line, which was to leave it all to our landholders to work out for themselves.
The minister and her government have an obligation to do more than post it on the web, as was initially the case with the tick-line review where overlay maps couldn’t been viewed and consultation was limited to the Christmas break.
There’s a big need for education of livestock producers and farmers regarding what the changes mean. We have graziers battling drought and farmers busy preparing for the winter season, yet it is now April and nothing has happened, or is planned to take place to prepare our state for this important change. And experience shows that biosecurity is easy to ignore until there is an outbreak that threatens farms and broader industry.
While the key change in the new Biosecurity Act is towards ‘landholder obligation’, away from regulation and prescription, there is reason for industry to be concerned that the Palaszczuk Labor government will drop as much as it can in a rush to embrace parallel running national reviews, potentially risking the relatively clean and healthy status of Queensland herds.
A real sleeper is Bovine Johne’s disease (BJD). While Queensland has all-but dealt with the largest outbreak nationally there is well-grounded concern that the Palaszczuk government will roll-over to pressure from southern interest groups and agents who want Queensland’s ‘protected zone’ status dumped in favour of the new world order of self-assessment and self-management.
A strong word of caution: we need to be very careful with any major changes to disease protocols and I note the deep concerns held by Queensland’s dairyfarmers and their peak organisation. Beef industry leaders have been less forthcoming, although Cattle Council is pushing for a national ‘Cattle Health Statement’ which would at least put onus on vendors to declare disease status to give some security to buyers. It would be better than ‘caveat emptor’, but without regulation and certified health tests.
There was a time when Queensland aimed at being ‘the most foot and mouth disease prepared state’. It’s hard to be sure where we currently stand because the Palaszczuk Government has been sitting on the Biosecurity Capability Review which is fuelling concerns about a quantified lack of resources in biosecurity.
In the move by government to wash its hands of regulation and leave it all to industry and individuals, a genuine area of concern is the lack of traceability of infected livestock. While producers will still be required to notify the department (DAF), it seems the Department won’t be keeping records of livestock movements from infected herds and properties.
This is hardly the level of service the government needs to provide to help minimise the spread of major diseases. It’s not a model that would be accepted in horticultural industries which have suffered their share of disease outbreaks in recent times, and if adopted would seem a recipe for disaster.
July 1 will come around in a hurry. When it comes to preparedness it appears a lot will be left to chance.
- Deb Frecklington is the LNP Opposition’s spokesperson for agriculture, fisheries and forestry.
