Progression of Biosecurity Levy another fork in the back for Queensland horticulture
This week’s news of the controversial biosecurity levy progressing to the Senate is yet another fork in the back for Queensland’s horticulture industry.
Queensland Fruit & Vegetable Growers (QFVG) CEO Rachel Chambers said the goal of improving long-term, national biosecurity outcomes was welcomed by industry however our issue is the lack of consultation by government on getting this right for all Australians who rely on positive biosecurity outcomes.
“To be clear our issue has been the haphazard way they’ve gone about throwing new legislation at us without first seeking to understand the data on how industry already contributes to biosecurity outcomes,” Ms Chambers said.
“They have demonstrated complete disregard to the Attorney Generals principles for clearer laws which includes “Legislation should enable those affected to understand how the law applies to them”. This certainly isn’t the case, with many commodities just three months from implementation still completely unaware as to how the tax will impact their ever-escalating cost of production.
“In fact, industry currently invests in biosecurity preparedness and response activities, including on-farm, through investment in research and development, membership fees for Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia, and contributions to emergency responses under deed arrangements. And let’s not mention varroa mite – a debt many growers nationally are just starting to pay off.
“Right from the beginning when the government announced the biosecurity levy as part of their budget without any consultation with industry – the levy (tax) has had teething issues. Industry has been trying to work through these issues with the government. However, made obvious by the 100% of feedback from industry still opposing it entirely, we have not yet got to a place where industry thinks this is an acceptable way forward.”
On the back of this new announcement, QFVG is calling on the government to pause the levy and take stock of current industry investments in the national biosecurity system and make the results public, as recommended by the Craik Review and then value those collective resources within the context of the whole system.
“Then and only then will we all be in an informed, evidence driven, and data supported place to make informed decisions on how we together achieve a sustainable biosecurity funding system – rather than a fundamentally flawed, industry rejected money grab into treasury,” Ms Chambers said.
