Press conference in Sydney, NSW

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
SYDNEY 
MONDAY, 3 APRIL 2023

SUBJECT: Significant biosecurity detection in Sydney

MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: Well thank you very much for coming along today for what, as you can see in front of us, is a pretty grizzly biosecurity detection. And, in fact, what you’re looking at, here and outside, is one of the largest ever biosecurity detections in Australian history. 

And I want to pay tribute at the very outset to our biosecurity officers from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, who every single day play an important role to keep our country safe and our agriculture sector safe from all sorts of diseases that are rampaging around the rest of the world but we’ve been able to prevent from coming to Australia. 

And it’s detections like this that go such a long way to making sure that our biosecurity system remains safe and that our agriculture sector remains safe of all sorts of pests and diseases which would cripple the industry if they did get in here. 

Now, just in terms of size, what we’re looking at here today, as I say, is one of the largest ever bio detections – seizures and detections in Australian history. All up our biosecurity officers have found 38 tonnes of biosecurity risk material in an overall shipment of about 250 tonnes. And to put that in context – and as you can see outside – that works out to seven shipping containers full of biosecurity risk material; things like turtle meat, frog meat, pigs heads, beef material, prawns, seafood, all sorts of thing that if it hadn’t been picked up could have been a very serious risk to our agriculture sector here in Australia. 

It's a terrific thing that our biosecurity officers picked this up. And, again, I commend their diligence in using their skills and their training to alert themselves to risk material and to stop it from getting into the Australian community, whether that be at our ports, at warehouses or anywhere else. 

And I think today is a reminder that it doesn’t matter whether someone is just trying to bring in a McMuffin through an airport or a massive seizure like this, our biosecurity officers are on the job each and every day working hard to keep our agriculture sector safe from terrible diseases that remain outside our borders. 

I might introduce you shortly to (Doctor) Mark Schipp, who is the Chief Veterinary Officer who can talk to you about what the risk of this sort of material is if it did get into the Australian community. And Andrew is here as well who has led the team for the department and the biosecurity officers, and he can take you through any of the details of the investigation. 

This investigation is still underway, but we expect that it will lead to prosecutions. Obviously, evidence is still being gathered, but the penalties for this kind of material are up to 10 years jail for an individual, up to $1.5 million in fines for an individual or nearly $7 million for a company that does the wrong thing. 

So, I say to anyone, whether you’re a traveller coming into the country with the wrong kind of material or an importer trying to sneak in tonnes of risky material, we will catch you and you will face the full force of the law. Thanks. I’ll just hand over to Mark now. 

MARK SCHIPP, CHIEF VETERINARY OFFICER: Thank you very much, Minister. It’s very disappointing to see this behaviour. Biosecurity is a shared responsibility, and to see such high-risk products being brought in in this volume is of great concern. We’re particularly concerned about the range of diseases that could be presented and introduced through these types of products, such as foot and mouth disease, African swine fever, avian influenza, Newcastle disease, white spot disease, (inaudible) virus, which pose risks not only to Australian agriculture but to our environment as well. 

We’ve seen that there are a large range of frog and turtle imports here. They pose a risk to our native fauna, as do the imports of poultry products, which could introduce diseases into Australia that we don’t have and which could engager Australian wildlife, not to mention our Australian agriculture. 

So very disappointing that this behaviour exists, but it’s very encouraging that our quarantine and biosecurity staff have detected this and been able to capture 38 tonnes of product and to take it off the streets, get it away from consumers and from retail trade. Thank you. 

MURRAY WATT: Happy to take questions. 

JOURNALIST: Is this just the tip of the iceberg? 

MURRAY WATT: Well, I think this does show that our biosecurity system is working, that we can pick up these kinds of activities and prevent this sort of material coming into the Australian community more generally. But the reality is that our biosecurity system is under increasing pressure. You’ve probably seen the story in the media recently about the thousands of contaminated cars that we are having to stop at our ports as well because of stinkbugs, snails, weeds, all sorts of things that have got cluttered on to wheels and bodies of cars that also, if they make it into Australia, represent a big risk to our horticulture system. So every day we face serious biosecurity threats, and it’s our hard-working biosecurity officers that are stopping this material getting into the country. 

JOURNALIST: What does it say about somebody even attempting to get this material in? Does it show that there are potentially flaws in the biosecurity laws we have here? 

MURRAY WATT: No, I think it just defies belief that anyone thinks that they can sneak in material like this into Australia, which is well-renowned for having one of the best biosecurity systems in the world. It defies belief that anyone thinks they can get away with it, that they won’t be caught, or that they don’t take these issues seriously. As Mark Schipp has told you, biosecurity is a shared responsibility. Governments have responsibilities to protect us from biosecurity threats, but so do travellers, so do importers, to do the right thing and to make sure that they’re not bringing risky diseases into this country. And that’s why I make no apologies whatsoever for throwing the book at people who do this kind of thing. And I look forward to successful prosecutions down the track. 

JOURNALIST: Do we have an idea of the street value of this? 

MURRAY WATT: I don’t, but I’m not sure anyone – no, I don’t think that’s been quantified yet. But, I mean, as I say, it’s 38 tonnes worth of material that would have found its way into retail outlets. In some cases it was brought here, it would seem, for human consumption. In some cases, it was products that intended to be planted and grown. But it’s an extremely valuable seizure, and I’m very pleased that it’s occurred. 

JOURNALIST: Do we have an idea of where has come from? 

MURRAY WATT: We do need to be a little bit careful about what we say because the investigation is underway. But why don’t I let Andrew tell you whatever he can. 

ANDREW PATTERSON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, CARGO OPERATIONS: Thank you, The investigation continues and we are working in partnership with the Australian Border Force and the Australian Federal Police. Part of the investigation is to identify where the goods came from, and on the basis that it is ongoing, I’m unable to share any more information on that. 

JOURNALIST: Have there been any arrests so far? 

ANDREW PATTERSON: There have been no arrests, but [indistinct] to share detail into the investigations will be referred to the police. 

JOURNALIST: As we understand there’s been search warrants, though, that have been executed, and can you tell us about the search warrants, where they’ve been executed? 

ANDREW PATTERSON: Quite a number of search warrants have been executed on locations that are associated with products that are before you. The nature of those search warrants are focused on and accompanied by biosecurity risk assessments. That’s the specific powers that we have under the Biosecurity Act, and then working with our partner agencies such as the Federal Police and the Australian Border Force using their powers [indistinct] response. 

JOURNALIST: So were these products headed to the black market? There obviously is a black market currently for these kinds of meats and products. 

ANDREW PATTERSON: So there’s clearly a market as the products are here, but the investigation is yet to identify where those products were destined for. 

JOURNALIST: Just considering the products, are you able to kind of take it down to even just a few countries where they could potentially originate from? 

ANDREW PATTERSON: The origin of the products is obviously the focus of our inquiries. But on the basis that investigations are ongoing, we’re not in a position to share any of that detail. 

JOURNALIST: Could any of these products be imported legally if they went through the right channels? 

ANDREW PATTERSON: Some of these products potentially could be imported legally. Biosecurity legislation has very specific requirements for goods and goods of certain types coming through the border. Of the information that is available to us at the moment, we are unable to locate any evidence to say that these goods came through legitimate channels. 

JOURNALIST: And what happens to these products now? Will they be tested to potentially show where they came from? What happens to these products now? Are they being stored?

ANDREW PATTERSON: Dr Mark Schipp may wish to speak to their testing. But our ongoing investigation, the particular focus of that is conducting risk assessments on the goods themselves. So what risks - biosecurity risks - pig-related products may present to us. When those risk assessments are complete we will provide them, the information that we already have and then move to make decisions as to future of the goods. Where the goods cannot be treated or pose an unacceptable biosecurity risk, one of the options for us is to destroy them. 

JOURNALIST: And can you just tell us how- the moment it was intercepted and where they were intercepted? How were they found and in what circumstances? 

ANDREW PATTERSON: So one of our diligent biosecurity officers was performing his duties and he identified an anomaly in the course of an unrelated matter. He shared that information with his colleagues. That then led to the biosecurity workforce mobilising where a day later a search warrant was executed in Western Sydney and 250 tonnes of products were identified. Our officers then over the course of several weeks progressively worked their way through that 250 tonnes to identify 38 tonnes of biosecurity risk material. And that’s the material that we have in our possession under biosecurity control. 

JOURNALIST: When was the interception made? When did it happen? How long has this investigation been going on for? 

ANDREW PATTERSON: So the officer first identified an anomaly 15 February, and that saw us executing search warrants on the 17th, so two days later. In the intervening period we were able to, through our skilled workforce, identify where the goods had gone to and then move to work with other agencies to locate them on the 17th. Dr Schipp may wish to speak about testing.

JOURNALIST: Will you ever find out through testing where these products – where these animals, for example, the turtles, came from? 

MARK SCHIPP: In terms of managing the biosecurity risk, it’s not necessary to test the products. However we have commenced testing on the prawns and we have found white spot disease in one of the bags of prawns that were tested to date. Further testing is anticipated to be undertaken, in part to identify the origin of the goods, particularly the horticulture and plant products because they have soil attached and that will allows us to identify the source. 

JOURNALIST: So how risky and potentially dangerous is that disease that you picked up? Is that currently prevalent in our prawns? 

MARK SCHIPP: So Australia was free of white spot disease until 2016 when we had an outbreak in Queensland, and we had an outbreak again in New South Wales last year. We’re not saying it was any association between this detection today and those outbreaks. We’re continuing to manage those outbreaks in Queensland and New South Wales. But the rest of Australia is free from that disease and we hope to keep it that way. And for that reason we manage biosecurity measures for prawns at the border very strictly. 

JOURNALIST: In terms of the outbreak of any diseases, how much does it take for the disease to get out there in the community and trigger a crisis in terms of [indistinct]? 

MARK SCHIPP: Some diseases are highly contagious, so a very small part might be consumed by an animal or exposed to an animal will trigger an outbreak. Other diseases are less so. So it’s hard to generalise, but certainly, prawn products that have got white spot disease if they were discarded into a waterway or used as bait could trigger an outbreak. 

JOURNALIST: Do you expect to find FMD or swine flu traces in any of these? 

MARK SCHIPP: We’ve not tested the pork and beef products as yet. 

JOURNALIST: In terms of the risk of foot and mouth disease, given your experience how worrying is it that these products, you know, contain those kinds of diseases? 

MARK SCHIPP: We are very concerned that those diseases may well be present and then for that reason we’re very pleased we’ve been able to identify these products and take them away from possible exposure to Australian livestock. If somebody were to discard these products at the tip or on the side of the road a feral pig may pick those up and transmit foot and mouth disease or African swine fever very easily. 

MURRAY WATT: I might just add one thing about foot and mouth disease – just to add to what Mark said, in terms of what happens from here, obviously this investigation is still underway, but it is very likely that much of this material will be destroyed in a safe way to make sure that it never makes it into the Australian community, whether it’s been tested or not. We obviously want to keep Australian consumers, the environment and agriculture sector safe, and that’s the best way to do that. You probably remember when we faced that foot and mouth disease scare – which is still ever present – last year the Government brought in a range of new measures to keep us safe from foot and mouth disease and lumpy skin disease - another diseases that affects cattle. We, in our October Budget, allocated $134 million in new funding to up our effort around biosecurity, and a lot of that was about foot and mouth disease. We’ve been putting on more biosecurity officers at our ports and our airports. We’ve stiffened penalties against people. We’re providing vaccines and other support to Indonesia to help bring their epidemic under control. But, importantly, we are continuing to lift our game when it comes to these sorts of seizures as well.