THE RIGHT PLAN FOR QUEENSLAND’S FUTURE
- $50 million biosecurity boost to tackle emerging threats to agriculture in Queensland.
- 100 additional biosecurity officers to be stationed at regional Department of Agriculture and Fisheries facilities in biosecurity hotspots.
- A focus on strengthening biosecurity across the Cape, including a review of Labor’s closure of Cape York Biosecurity Facility at Coen, an important biosecurity barrier in our State’s Far North.
- Strengthening the fire ant eradication program and implementing recommendations from reviews the Labor Government continues to ignore.
A Crisafulli LNP Government would beef-up Queensland’s biosecurity frontline with an additional $50 million investment over the next four years, as part of the Right Plan for Queensland’s Future.
The funding boost, announced by LNP Leader David Crisafulli at the Rural Press Club today, is part of a plan to tackle emerging threats of foot and mouth disease, Japanese encephalitis, African swine fever, avian influenza, varroa mite and other pests and diseases that pose a significant risk to Queensland’s world-class agricultural production.
Strong biosecurity is critical to the ongoing success of Queensland’s $23.6 billion agricultural industry, with disease and pests able to decimate crops and herds within days of a major biosecurity breach.
The flow on effects of biosecurity outbreaks are significant, with ramifications across the supply chain, like increased cost of meat that Queenslanders pay at the butcher or supermarket.
In the past decade, Labor has overseen a long list of biosecurity failures including closing the State’s most northern biosecurity checkpoint and allowing fire ants to march past containment lines.
Concerningly, Labor has ignored key recommendations from three scathing independent reviews of the Government’s bungled fire ant eradication program.
LNP Leader David Crisafulli said the LNP would bolster Queensland’s biosecurity and safeguard our agricultural production as part of the Right Plan for Queensland’s Future.
“The LNP will beef-up our biosecurity frontline to protect crops and livestock from the threats facing the future of agriculture in Queensland,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“Our plan will bolster our frontline workforce with 100 additional staff within the Department to enforce and respond to biosecurity threats, including new stock inspectors, vets, agronomists, research and development and AgTech specialists.
“The LNP will put more biosecurity cops on the beat to protect our livestock and crops from biosecurity breaches.
“Our plan is a flag in the ground that the LNP is determined to restore Queenslanders’ trust in the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries as a trusted advisor and partner to industry, not an inhibitor.
“Queensland’s produce is world-class but we must close Labor’s widening biosecurity gap to ensure these critical industries are protected for decades to come.
“Labor has created vulnerability in our northern line of defence by closing the Cape York Biosecurity Centre and fire ants have broken containment lines, threatening a swathe of prime agricultural land across southern Queensland.”
Shadow Minister for Agriculture Tony Perrett said the chaos and crisis of the decade old Labor Party had seen biosecurity safeguards crumble across the state.
“Our biosecurity should not take a backseat because of Labor’s billions in budget blowouts in South East Queensland leaving nothing for rural and regional biosecurity,” Mr Perrett said.
“That’s why the LNP will review the closure of the Cape York Biosecurity Facility and move to reinstate our northern line of biosecurity defence.
“We will also strengthen the fire ant response after Labor’s alarming failure to properly resource and run the program has led to the spread of the ants beyond containment lines, into the Darling Downs and past the Queensland border.
“There are three scathing independent reviews of the Queensland Government’s bungled management of the Fire Ant Eradication Program. An LNP Government will act quickly to ensure this program is properly governed and key recommendations implemented.
“Only the LNP has the Right Plan for Queensland’s Future, which includes bolstering biosecurity to protect our agricultural, fisheries and forestry industries for decades to come.”