Agriculture is vital to Tasmania, but several sectors within that industry have come under threat over the past few years – and the state’s biosecurity protocols have come under fire as a result.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Two questions about Tasmania’s biosecurity and agritourism were put to Primary Industries minister Jeremy Rockliff, Greens primary industries spokeswoman Andrea Dawkins and opposition primary industries spokesman Shane Broad.
Q: Biosecurity has become a hot topic due to blueberry rust and fruit fly incursions within the past year. Do these incursions show Tasmania needs to work with other states to deal with biosecurity as a national issue?
ROCKLIFF: We established Biosecurity Tasmania and the budget shows we invested more funding year on year into biosecurity. There is $4.5 million more in the budget now than under Labor and 20 more full-time equivalent biosecurity personnel.
We have doubled the number of detector dogs, improved multi-lingual signage and bins at our airports and ports, and new TT-Line checks have confiscated over 50 tonnes of risk material before entering Tasmania.
Tasmania constantly works with other states as part of the national biosecurity system. With fruit fly currently affecting southern states we are naturally working closely with interstate and federal biosecurity agencies.
DAWKINS: Many small-to-medium producers in Tasmania feel as though they have been let down on biosecurity by the Liberals.
Tasmania must continue to work with other states as a matter of priority and ensure a collegial, collaborative relationships with relevant departments in other states. The only way to ensure those relationships flourish is to attribute enough resources to biosecurity.
Biosecurity has three pillars: pre border, at the border, and post border. We should be investing in all three threat entry risk points. There has been industrial action due to the enormous overtime burden on biosecurity staff, compounding the significant responsibility which lies with the department to keep the island free of invasive species.
BROAD: Biosecurity has become a hot topic due to the Liberals’ appalling record that has seen the spread of fruit fly, blueberry rust, POMS and myrtle rust in only four years of government. As the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association has rightly pointed out, we cannot simply rely on other states to do the right thing.
The current fruit fly emergency deserves and multi-layered response. We must work with other states, but we need to establish a fruit fly task force, reinstate biosecurity funding that was cut by state and federal Liberal governments, better educate people moving fruit in the exclusion zone, use more prominent signage at our ports and airports and screen as many tourists as possible.
Q: How do you see that Tasmania can continue to sell its clean, green image for agritourism when part of the problem with biosecurity issues is the sheer number of tourists entering the state in so many different ways?
ROCKLIFF: Tasmania is a great state and we want more to enjoy it. Increased tourism and trade in agricultural products is a great thing. We recognise it can bring biosecurity risks, which is why we have invested more year-on-year strengthening Biosecurity Tasmania and committed a further $3 million during this election. We know more can be done, which is why biosecurity remains a high priority.
Our primary industries are the backbone of this state and that is why we will invest more than $150 million into our comprehensive plan for growing agriculture.
DAWKINS: While most Tasmanians are aware of the biosecurity requirements to keep the island’s produce safe and healthy, with increased visitation comes increased risk, and we certainly must improve messaging around regulation. The Liberals have presided over a time of warming climate and serious biosecurity incursions, and have been found wanting. Biosecurity Tasmania suffered funding cuts under the Liberals, and remaining staff expected to work under stressful conditions without overarching strategy.
One of the centrepieces of the Liberals’ legislative agenda and key promises in the lead up to the last election – a new piece of biosecurity legislation – never made it to parliament. It was hamstrung by its failure to satisfy key stakeholders – the very people it should have protected. All the while, Biosecurity Tasmania is working to an out of date strategic plan from 2013.
Liberals’ ideological barrier to addressing climate change has had ramifications on all government policies. Tasmania is unprepared for further incursions, like POMS and fruit fly. It’s simply unacceptable for a government to refuse to acknowledge the research, and properly address the threat of a warming climate on our food security and economic prosperity.
BROAD: Our brand is our market advantage and it has been hard won. We have to be ever vigilant with biosecurity as breaches hurt our image and markets, and stall investment in the fruit industry with some big projects on hold. While there is no evidence that fruit fly came in through tourism, we need to boost our front line to make sure that every tourist is educated about the potential impacts of pests and diseases and as many as possible are screened.
We know that tourism is booming and that cuts to biosecurity have reduced protection at our borders. State and federal Labor have made a joint commitment totalling $5.7 million to employ an additional 20 biosecurity officers.