Farmers Welcome Fairer Biosecurity Funding

Farmers have welcomed a $47.1 million dollar boost to the nation’s biosecurity system thanks to the Australian Government’s new fees and charges system for importers.  

NSW Farmers Biosecurity Committee Chair Ian McColl says the new cost recovery mechanism was a strong step towards better biosecurity funding for the future, with the proposed biosecurity tax on farmers now defeated in the Senate. 

Mr McColl says it was imperative further solutions for biosecurity funding were explored, with a container levy one of the measures the Australian Government could implement to equitably recover costs. 

He says a charge on import shipping containers is just one of the ways the government could ensure that funding draws on risk creators, rather than just our farmers, to bolster our borders and other measures to minimize biosecurity risk.