Interview with Thomas Robinson, ABC NT Country Hour

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC NT COUNTRY HOUR
MONDAY, 15 JUNE 2026

SUBJECTS: Australian support for Indonesia’s lumpy skin disease response, agricultural export cost recovery, Middle East Conflict

THOMAS ROBINSON, HOST: The Federal Government says it will spend up to $1 million to help fight an outbreak of lumpy skin disease in Bali. So this disease as you well know has been spreading through Indonesian cattle since 2022, and the Australian Government has so far provided 1.4 million doses of vaccines. The Government says the funding announced today will help protect Indonesia livestock industries, and hopefully prevent the disease from ever getting into Australia. I’m joined by Federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Julie Collins. Minister, what difference will this make on the ground in the tropical island of Bali?

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: What this means, of course, is that there'll be more vaccines available on the ground and help Indonesia help contain this lumpy skin disease. We do know that since 2022, it has spread across Indonesia, and we are working with the Indonesian Government. We've now provided support of 1.4 million doses of lumpy skin disease vaccine to the Government. We've also had our CSIRO Centre for Disease Preparedness working with the Indonesian Government laboratories and surveillance, and we've also been doing some training to try and help in terms of the animal diseases in our region with them. So, this is very significant. An additional million dollars, we expect, will purchase somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000 additional vaccines.

ROBINSON: The messaging from Government and industry when lumpy skin disease made it to Bali was, I guess everyone should be alert, not alarmed. Has that situation changed? Has there been a big spike in cases to sort of inform this response now?

COLLINS: No, this is us continuing our work with the Indonesian Government and us continuing to work with industry and with our partners in the region. Australia has a National Lumpy Skin Disease Preparedness Plan and we continue to work with our close neighbours on making sure that we do everything we can do to help them, but also help protect Australia's border, which is obviously really important to us as well.

ROBINSON: What's the timeline for this rollout of the million dollars in the extra vaccines that already started?

COLLINS: Well, we want to get it out there as quickly as we possibly can. And as I said, it does come on top of the fact that we've already provided over a million vaccines and working with the Indonesian Government in terms of doing everything we can to lift, in terms of their laboratories and surveillance and their training, as well on the ground. So, this is about, as you said, supporting our neighbour, but also about protecting our borders. I mean, we've now invested, since we've come to office, around $2 billion in additional funding for biosecurity since we've been in office, and that includes things like supporting our neighbours with these vaccines.

ROBINSON: I think, sort of, based on my conversations with people in the industry, any biosecurity funding is obviously welcome and it'll make a difference. But I guess the question they always have is, can you commit to sort of an ongoing program of funding or is this going to be a sort of one-off spending?

COLLINS: Well, we continue to work with our partners in the region about what additional work might need to be done and certainly we know that these vaccines will be welcomed by the Indonesian Government and by industry because they are part of our ongoing work with Indonesia to make sure that we do everything we can. We continue to work with industry more broadly on biosecurity, and, as I said, those investments have been very significant from our Government.

ROBINSON: How would you characterise I guess the relationship with Indonesia on this management of lumpy skin disease. How important is Australia’s assistance in this case?  

COLLINS: Well I think the assistance has been really welcomed by our near neighbours. We’ve been doing a range of measures to decrease the risk for Australia in terms of our international travel and trade. We’ve been looking at, as I said, our preparedness plan. But importantly, we’re doing everything we can to stop lumpy skin disease from coming to Australia by working with our near neighbours like Indonesia. And we certainly know that in conversations we’ve had with the Indonesian Government, they certainly appreciate our support and the work we’ve been doing on the ground to assist them.  

ROBINSON: Does the spread of lumpy skin disease to Bali specifically increase risk to Australia any more than it would if it spread to another island in the Indonesian archipelago?

COLLINS: Yeah, well, we've obviously seen it in Indonesia, I think it's across 21 provinces and a range of islands there. So, we're actively monitoring the situation as you would expect us to. And as I said, since lumpy skin disease has been in Indonesia, we've checked our biosecurity settings and we're very confident that our biosecurity settings and our border requirements are as appropriate as they need to be and will help us manage that risk. We also said that travellers returning from Bali don't present an increased risk, provided they follow the standard biosecurity measures at the border. We encourage people always to make sure they let us know where they've been and what they've been up to and to fill in that traveller declaration card appropriately.

ROBINSON: This sort of ongoing response and assistance to Indonesia, how do you measure the success of the program? Is eradication the goal? Is that possible? How would you sort of give it a big green tick?

COLLINS: Well, that will be obviously up to the Indonesian Government, but any reduction or containment, I'm sure would be welcomed. I mean, Australia has been free from lumpy skin disease. We've never had an incursion here. We want to make sure that that remains the case, which is why we're also working with our new neighbours and helping them contain their outbreak, and we'll continue to do that.

ROBINSON: Minister, you visited Indonesia in August last year, I understand, and saw the live export trade in action. What did you sort of think of how that's going and how important the industry is to both nations?

COLLINS: It was terrific to visit Indonesia last year and to meet with various counterparts, Ministers, but also to hear from industry and see industry directly about how important this is to Indonesia. And certainly, when you look at President Prabowo's plans in terms of, he's feeding the school kids in Indonesia, I'm sure it's a very significant part of what they need to be able to do. And they want to increase their ability in terms of their ability to feed their nation. So, I think that they appreciate the partnership with Australia hugely.

ROBINSON: On that partnership with Australia, have Indonesian representatives or authorities asked for assistance with other biosecurity matters? And particularly thinking with FMD, and my understanding, maybe they're talking about other species that Australia could help with.

COLLINS: Well, we're always in discussions with our neighbours and providing our biosecurity expertise across our region to do what we can do to help our new neighbours, but also, obviously, to keep Australia's border secure. I mean, it's part of the role of keeping Australia disease-free from some of these diseases, is working with our neighbours in the region. And we continue to do that. We do it on a whole range of different diseases and a whole range of different countries.

ROBINSON: There's been an ongoing sort of conversation between industry and government about cost recovery with live export. And my understanding is funding was given to the Live Animal Export Division of DAFF fairly recently to establish a new framework for live animal exports. In your view, Minister, how is that relationship and conversation progressing around cost recovery?

COLLINS: We've certainly been in a discussion with a whole range of industries, the various different sectors of the agriculture industry, for more than 12 months now in terms of the cost recovery. What we've done since the outbreak of the war in the Middle East, after discussions with industry, is we have deferred the implementation of that. It was supposed to start from the 1 July this year and we've deferred it for 12 months. So, it will now come into effect from the 1 July 2027 and will be phased in and will be phased in through to 2029. So, what we have done is we've worked with industry to make sure that they're aware of the cost recovery process. I have been involved in briefings directly with all the different industry groups and certainly, we have provided additional funding and supplementation over that period of time of well over $138 million. And we continue to work with industry in relation to the cost recovery process.

ROBINSON: I'm watching the TV here in the studio. You'd be aware of the news. The US and Iran have reached a peace deal, or a deal to suspend hostilities, I should call it. That's sort of just happening this morning. And I appreciate the government is probably still piecing together exactly what's happened, but what can you tell us at this stage?

COLLINS: Well, obviously, the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister have certainly welcomed the news about the peace deal in terms of the Middle East. I understand it's due to be ratified in a week's time. And certainly as a Government, we have always called for de-escalation. So, we obviously welcome that de-escalation and we also want to see that Strait of Hormuz that's so important to the world's economy reopen as soon as possible. And that's been our position really from day one. In the meantime, of course, we've been getting on. We've been doing everything we can do as a government to help shield Australians and particularly our primary producers, our farmers, from the worst impacts of this war in the Middle East. And we'll continue to do that. We're not sure yet, I guess on obviously how long it'll take to get the Strait open. We're not sure about how long a tail this is going to have, but we'll continue to work with industry in the sector and we continue to engage with them regularly on it.

ROBINSON: Minister, thanks for your time on Country Hour this afternoon.

COLLINS: Thanks for having me on, I really appreciate it.