Coen biosecurity centre closed by Qld Labor member for Cook, Cynthia Lui, now handed over to and owned by local Aborigines

By staff writers

Kicking primary producers while they are down has become a popular sport within the ranks of the state and federal Labor parties over the past decade or longer.

Farmers, the toilers of Australian soils and grasslands provide some of the best ‘clean and green’ produce available anywhere in the world, certainly at world best prices.

But there’s a catch. Primary producers are price takers, not price makers and have to settle for what they get in an open market system. This marketing method is tolerated only by devious and controlled primary producer bodies whose often compromised leaders give governments whatever they want.

This Labor buffoon wants to squeeze a further $50 million from struggling farmers for biosecurity after Qld Labor shut down our only northern bulwark to exotic diseases

Farmers object to poor financial returns which more often than not are less than the cost of production but the rep bodies just say “tough” as they collect their compulsory levies on produce sold.

Cattle prices today are at their lowest levels for at least 35 years, yet the cost of production has increased by around 300 per cent for struggling cattle producers and farmers over this period.

Then along comes the Labor mob in true socialist style demanding producers cough up a further $50 million next year to cover biosecurity costs for exporters or the domestic market.

The breathtaking hypocrisy of these charlatans demonstrates this cash grab has nothing to do with biosecurity but is another plank in the United Nation’s expansionist program which the totally compromised political duopoly is happy to implement.

PM Albanese recently returned from Indonesia, our largest importer of live cattle, where he says he convinced the Jakarta government to re-open the live export market after a lumpy skin scare, which originated in their own cattle and not any imported from Australia.

Albanese agreed to have every export animal tested for lumpy skin disease at a cost of $200 per head.

But who pays? Australian cattle producers of course.

When added to all other government production and export imposts there is not much left for the producer.

Cairns News readers would remember back in January this year we published a story about the $2 million biosecurity centre situated at Coen in Cape York Peninsula about six hours drive north of Mareeba, being handed over to local Aborigines for accommodation because Queensland Labor no longer wanted to fund it.

This important facility situated on the Peninsula Development Road was the only northern, land-based checkpoint for exotic plant and animal diseases.

It conducted on average more than 100,000 spot checks of south bound vehicles every year sometimes with surprising discoveries. Many are tourists who generally, are oblivious to the threats posed by pathogens or insects they could be carrying in fruit, vegetables or meat sourced from further north.

The indigenous and white staff also kept an eye out for illegal immigrants who sometimes boated across the Torres Strait from PNG or Indonesian territory bound for Cairns or further south.

Now there are no checks. Biosecurity for north Queensland, thus the remainder of the state and Australia, has been sabotaged.

The northern cattle industry is wide open to become infected with screw worm from PNG which can also infect humans and domestic animals.

https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/livestock-biosecurity/screw-worm-fly

The mango industry could be devastated by the red-banded mango caterpillar found in south east Asia.

The media release below refers to today’s closing date for submissions to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry about a proposed biosecurity levy and how it should be collected, starting next year:

“Primary producers, whether growing for the domestic market or exporting into premium overseas markets, benefit considerably from our favourable biosecurity status. Due, in part, to the considerable prevention efforts at the border, we continue to be one of the few countries in the world that remains free from many of the world’s most invasive pests and diseases.

From 1 July 2024 primary producers will contribute to the cost of Australian Government biosecurity activities through the introduction of a new Biosecurity Protection Levy.

This levy will see agriculture, fisheries and forestry producers join taxpayers, importers, international travellers, and Australia Post in delivering a fairer system of payment for the biosecurity system.

Subject to consultation on design and implementation arrangements, the levy will commence from 1 July 2024 and is intended to collect around $50 million per year. This amount is equivalent to 6 per cent (on an annual basis) of the Commonwealth biosecurity funding in 2024-25.

In order to ensure levy arrangements are practical, and implementation and administration costs are as low as possible for all parties, we sought your feedback on the levy design and implementation.”

The bureaucratic bungling between states and the federal government is stupendous costing taxpayers a fortune as Labor ideology, bit-by-bit disembowels the food supply.

While state Labor has dismantled one of the most important planks of northern biosecurity, the idiotic federal mob want to rip $50 million a year from hapless farmers to achieve little for exporters or local producers.