The
State Government is putting Tasmania’s livestock industry at risk by failing to
act fast enough to protect the state from the risk of Foot and Mouth Disease.
With the disease outbreak on our doorstop in Bali and other parts of Indonesia
we must act immediately. There is no second chance here.
If
Foot and Mouth reaches Tasmania, our farmers will be faced with
slaughtering tens of thousands of sheep, goats, cattle and pigs.
Just imagine. It will ruin people.
The
government has been absent on this issue and once again, way too slow to
act.
People arriving in Tasmania can be screened to check whether they have been to
Indonesia or Bali and check if they still have any dirty clothes, footwear or
prohibited products in their luggage.
We
saw with COVID that breaches can occur and being an island we do have the
luxury of double checking.
An
education and awareness campaign is a must.
I urge travellers returning from
impacted areas to clean and declare all clothing and footwear they have used on
their travels to biosecurity officers – and to discard any prohibited materials
before stepping foot on Tasmanian soil.
We need to move quickly to
establishing electronic tracking of livestock like they have in Victoria.
It is already mandatory for electronic tagging of
cattle in Tasmania but the government must now move to require that the
Tasmanian sheep flock be electronically tagged and help subsidise the cost for
farmers to do this.
This is a massive and expensive exercise but
nothing compared to the devastation of an outbreak.
Tags
will provide accurate tracking from property of birth through to export or
processing so that if Foot and Mouth finds its way to Tasmanian farms, it can
be acted on immediately.
Tasmanian farmers need the Government to take action now and protect our state immediately.
Shadow Minister for Primary Industries
