A broader Senate Inquiry is needed into Biosecurity Australias processes to ensure that the integrity of Australias no risk quarantine system on food imports is being maintained, according to the Australian Democrats.
Democrats Agriculture spokesperson Senator John Cherry said Biosecurity Australias indicative green light to Filipino bananas, New Zealand apples and American pigmeat last week appeared to ignore large bodies of science, and accept a much higher level of risk of diseases than was accepted by Australia in the past.
When you combine these decisions with the lax standards imposed on imports of Filipino pineapples and US table grapes last year, Biosecurity Australia looks like a repeat offender in terms of downplaying the risk of disease and lowering the quarantine bar, Senator Cherry said.
The Senate Rural Affairs Committee conducted a wide ranging review of Biosecurity Australias first draft Import Risk Assessment of apples and pears in 2001 and was scathing in its criticism.
Yet most of the excellent recommendations by the Committee were ignored in the new draft IRS released last week.
That is devastating news to apple and pear growers in the Granite Belt in Queensland, in the Adelaide Hills and in the southern states.
The banana decision could also represent a double whammy for Queensland farmers because piggybacking pineapple imports on banana imports significantly improves the economics for Filipino farmers exporting to Australia.
The strong public policy view across Australian farmers, consumers and politicians has always been that Australia should run the strictest, science-based quarantine system that trade rules allow.
Its decisions show that Biosecurity Australia is no longer delivering that outcome, and we need to understand why.
This is particularly important given the US Free Trade Agreement, to be tabled this week, will include trade officials of both countries working on technical issues previously the sole domain of scientists.
A broader Senate Inquiry into Australias quarantine system and the repeated failure of Biosecurity Australia to defend Australias interests, is now a clear necessity if we are to ensure that Australia maintains its clean, green, disease free status as a food producer, Senator Cherry concluded.
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