Minister must act on Senate committee’s findings
Chief Advocate Rachel Mackenzie said the Minister must pay heed to the committee’s recommendations, which totally vindicated the position of the respective industries regarding their biosecurity concerns.
“These are based on scientific analyses of the very real threats to domestic production from identified pests, including bacterial fruit collapse and heart rot in pineapples,” said Ms Mackenzie. “We understand our call to overturn these IRAs is uncharted waters but the findings of the committee are unequivocal that the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF Biosecurity) has been lax in protecting Australia’s biosecurity. Growcom has strongly advocated for years that the scientific data should be given careful consideration but DAFF dismissed this as irrelevant in its ruling. The Senate committee commented that this ‘defied common sense’ (Section 4.83).
“Now that the focus has turned once again to increasing Australia’s agricultural production and productivity to meet Asian food demand, and in particular to growing overseas markets for exports, it is to be hoped that biosecurity threats to future market access will be taken more seriously.
“We acknowledge the support of and thank the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Australian Pineapples, Tropical Pines, NQ Paradise Pines, Golden Circle, the Ginger Growers Association and Ausveg in pulling together the scientific evidence.”
For more information:
Chris Walker
Growcom
Tel: +61 07 3620 3844
Fax: +61 07 3620 3880
Email: cwalker@growcom.com.au