Welcome to the NFF’s Weekly Wrap, bringing you the week’s farming and political news each Friday.
Headlines
Industry slams Unions for backpacker visa comments Australia’s agriculture industry has slammed the Australian Workers Union, Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) and the Transport Workers Union for their call to ban the working holiday maker visa. The NFF said the stunt was a shallow and shameful attempt to grab headlines at a time when the farm sector was facing a dire worker shortage. To help better understand the impact of COVID-19 on
agriculture's labour requirements, farmers are encouraged to take part in the Farm Workforce Survey.
The latest Livestock Product figures from the ABS show wool receivals for the June 2020 quarter to be at a two-year low. The reduced clip is a result of the large amount of destocking by producers in response to the unprecedented drought conditions that gripped almost all sheep producing regions on the eastern seaboard.
Over the weekend, a Landline feature about the biosecurity risks associated with imported cut flowers highlighted the need for Government to act on maintaining Australia’s strong biosecurity and protect Australia’s growers.
A substantial and increasing proportion of the cut flowers sold in Australia are imported, from countries such as Kenya, Ecuador, Colombia and Malaysia. In the decade to 2018 the volume of cut
flower and foliage consignments arriving in Australia from exporting countries tripled.
While imports are an important part of agriculture’s supply chain and our status as a trading nation, the biosecurity risk associated with imports must be managed effectively, and must not unduly compromise our unique biosecurity status or put our primary industries and environment at risk.
Cut flowers are known to be a high-risk pathway, capable of harbouring a range of potentially damaging pests and diseases that are not present in Australia.
A review of import conditions in 2017 found that the high rate of live pests in incoming shipments, coupled with a single point of control at the Australian border had a significant potential for failure.
In response, the Department has implemented a number of changes to import
conditions intended to shift the management of risk offshore. Last year industry welcomed the introduction of a new import permit requirement for flowers from Kenya, Ecuador and Columbia - the countries from which we receive the highest volume of imports, and from which there had been consistently high rates of non-compliance.
While these measures have undoubtedly led to improvements, live insects continue to arrive at the border at an unacceptable rate.
While the Department argues that it inspects 100% of incoming cut flower consignments and fumigates those infested with biosecurity pests, industry maintains that these pests should be dealt with offshore - otherwise we are once again in a position of relying on a single point of control.
Once a pest gets into Australia it is up to industry and the taxpayer to bear the costs of eradication. Where eradication isn't possible, industry is left to manage the pest, and live with the loss of
production and market access.
While Australia has a natural geographical advantage that means we are free from many pests and diseases found elsewhere in the world, we heavily rely on our biosecurity system and cannot afford to be complacent.
The NFF sees a strong, well-resourced and innovative biosecurity system as underpinning the success of our primary industries, and argues that the most effective and economical way to protect Australia from pests and diseases is before the border.
The NFF has been working closely with member organisations to call on government to take a strong and consistent approach to managing the biosecurity risk associated with cut flower imports.
