Interview with Steve Austin, ABC Brisbane Drive

Radio Transcript
PREPARED: Tuesday 9 August 2022
TITLE: Interview with Minister Murray Watt on the National Biosecurity Strategy
DESCRIPTION: Minister Watt discusses the National Biosecurity Strategy
CHANNEL: ABC Brisbane
PROGRAM: Drive with Steve Austin
DATE BROADCAST:  9 August 2022 
TIME BROADCAST:  5:27pm - 5:34pm

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC BRISBANE DRIVE
THURSDAY, 9 AUGUST 2022

SUBJECTS: National Biosecurity Strategy; cooperation between the states and territories; biosecurity threats; foot and mouth disease; the Ekka

STEVE AUSTIN, HOST: But in the meantime, Australia's first ever national biosecurity strategy was released today. It deals with exotic pests, disease, changing climate and growing threats that this plan hopes to tackle. Senator Murray Watt is the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Senator, why is this Australia's first ever national biosecurity plan? I was kind of surprised when I heard that.

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, me too. Steve, and good to have a chat with you. As you say, Australia has never had a national biosecurity strategy before, which I think is a little surprising given the range of threats that we face on our borders, whether it be plant diseases or animal diseases. And frankly, I think one of the issues in recent years has been the difficulty getting cooperation between the Federal Government and States and Territories. And that's something we've put a lot of effort into since being elected.

STEVE AUSTIN: OK, so what's the plan? You've got a new strategic direction, what's the overall plan or thrust?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, well, as you were saying in the introduction, Steve, we do face growing threats these days, whether it be due to climate change or changing travel and trade patterns. Even things like the increasing trend towards more mail products and people doing online shopping means that we face the risk of more pests coming in the country. And what this strategy is about is really, for the first time, making sure that our federal, state and territory governments, along with industry, are on the same page about preparing for those threats in the future. It's identified six different priority areas for action, and they include everything from making sure we've got the kind of skilled workforce that we need for biosecurity through to technology improvements, making sure that we are constantly reviewing state and territory and federal plans, conducting national exercises. So there's a range of different ideas that have now put forward and that all the governments in the country, regardless of their political flavour, are locked into going forward.

STEVE AUSTIN: Senator Murray Watt is my guest. He's Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. We're here at the Ekka. Here at the Ekka, they're worried about foot and mouth, amongst other things. But I know that there's a range of issues that Australia is concerned about. Fire ants is another one. The Commonwealth, your arena, is responsible for the borders, but the states are responsible for tackling the threats. How's that going to work?

MURRAY WATT: Yes, and you're right, it's a timely time to be talking about this, Steve, with the Ekka. I was there on Sunday myself, and I'll be back there tomorrow with my kids, and I was having lots of good conversations with farmers on Sunday about their concerns regarding biosecurity. Basically you're right, foot and mouth disease has attracted a lot of attention, but there are other threats that we face. And really what this is about, as I say, is working with the States and Territories to ensure they're up to speed. Last week, I actually also announced a new Exotic (Animal) Diseases Preparedness Taskforce, which is about making sure at the federal level we've got our act together, making sure that we've got our plans in place and roles and responsibilities are clear, and we're going to be working with the states to make sure that they're also clear on their responsibilities. I was really heartened to see the announcement from Annastacia Palaszczuk and Mark Furner this week, where they've dedicated new resources to beef up their approach to foot and mouth disease. And I have to say most states, I think, are now doing the right thing in that regard. So that does give me some confidence that if the worst were to happen and we were to see an outbreak, that we're going to be ready. And, of course, this Preparedness Taskforce that we've got underway is establishing exactly at that right now.

STEVE AUSTIN: White Spot got into our aquaculture industry and it came in from overseas. Fire ants got into Queensland and it came from overseas. What's to prevent foot and mouth coming in when it's only as close as Bali, where many Australians go today?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, I think there's no doubt that I think all Australians were concerned when we saw that outbreak reach Bali. Obviously, it had reached Indonesia a little earlier this year and that raised concerns, but getting to Bali was another factor altogether. Our biosecurity experts have assessed the risk of a foot and mouth disease outbreak in Australia as being just under 12 per cent over the next five years. So it's still a fairly low risk, but it's not zero and that's why we need to take steps. So that's why we've already announced vaccines and technical assistance to Indonesia and we made a new announcement of that today - $10 million more to assist Indonesia bring the outbreak under control. But we're doing a whole range of things at our borders now in response to this, that no Australian government has ever done before. So we've seen a much wider rollout of foot mats - sanitation foot mats - at every international airport in Australia that's getting direct flights from Indonesia. We've increased the number of biosecurity officers, more detector dogs, you might have seen they're already picking up some food that people are bringing back when they shouldn't, which is leading to big fines. There's a whole range of things that we've done on top of anything that any government has ever done before. And that, again, gives me confidence that we can keep this out.

STEVE AUSTIN: Imported red fire ants have been under a national eradication program for a decade now or more. Is eradication feasible or have we really lost the battle?

MURRAY WATT: Well, I think that does show, Steve, that these outbreaks aren't necessarily easy to control, and especially if you're talking about something like fire ants which can get around pretty quickly. We'd certainly be hopeful that if there were to be a foot and mouth disease outbreak in Australia, that movement controls on livestock would really bring that under containment very quickly. But it's a little bit harder to stop the movement of fire ants and things like that. So I couldn't swear that we will ever eradicate fire ants, it's certainly something to aspire to. I know different states have been putting in a lot of effort in that regard, but as you say, the fact that that's been around so long shows that it's not an easy thing to get under control.

STEVE AUSTIN: Are we properly resourced to handle multiple biosecurity incursions at once? You've already mentioned foot and mouth, but there's also Japanese Encephalitis and lumpy skin disease in livestock. There are multiple battles on multiple fronts.

MURRAY WATT: No, that's right, Steve. That's of course, before you get to some of the plant diseases that we already see in the country. I was talking to the Northern Territory Agricultural Minister a few days ago, and they're very concerned about banana freckle, which is something they're dealing with. And there are similar plant disease as well. I think that there's no doubt you can always be putting more resources into biosecurity, and that's something that I've certainly taken up since I've been the Minister. I've been really pleased by the level of support I've had from Jim Chalmers and Katy Gallagher, our finance team. And it's what has meant that we've already been able to announce about $25 million new funding on top of anything that was there already. And certainly I'll be making some requests for even more as we head into the budget process.

STEVE AUSTIN: Senator Watt, thanks for your time.

MURRAY WATT: Good on you, Steve.

STEVE AUSTIN: Senator Murray Watt, Senator from Queensland. He's the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, bringing his kids to the Ekka, People's Day tomorrow here at the Ekka Showgrounds in the heart of Brisbane.