Federal Nationals leader David Littleproud has welcomed the release of the National Biosecurity Strategy but accused the new federal government of misleading Australians that they had anything to do with it.
“The previous Coalition Government started work on this strategy in October 2021 and effectively completed it before the federal election in May this year, so this ‘national first’ has been none of the doing of the current government,” Mr Littleproud said.
Mr Littleproud said there hasn’t been any new initiatives by the new government to tackle biosecurity threats.
He added foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) continued to cause concern and Labor was even forced into using foot mats at airports by the opposition.
“Whether it’s the 18 extra biosecurity officers and dogs, the biosecurity taskforce and the traceability grants for ear tags – they were all already committed and paid for in the April budget.
“The only initiative this government can lay claim to is the 1 million FMD vaccines offered to Indonesia a month ago but they are yet to administer a single one of them. It’s not much help promising an extra $10 million to Indonesia if they can’t even deliver vaccines needed immediately.”
Mr Littleproud said there was still an opportunity for the Minister to show real leadership and protect Australia from the threat of FMD.
“The Minister must consider stronger measures to protect us from FMD otherwise we’ll all pay,” Mr Littleproud said.
“Why aren’t we screening all passengers returning from Indonesia? Why haven’t we banned all passengers bringing food products into the country?
“You can be sure if we had done it then, the Minister would be trying to claim it as his own now.”
