Australia’s international border remains open amid outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease abroad, despite mounting opposition pressure to close the border, the agriculture minister said.
Calls to close the border were damaging to Australia’s agricultural reputation, Senator Murray Watt said, as he criticized the coalition for causing hysteria.
“We have absolutely no evidence that the virus is in Australia … it affects our international trade if people think Australia has this disease,” he told ABC radio on Monday.
Biosecurity measures already taken by the government are working, the minister said.
Airport officials report higher traveler compliance, with a decrease in undeclared risk items and contaminated footwear compared to previous weeks.
Senator Watt said it showed the message to the public about the importance of following biosafety rules.
However, opposition leader Peter Dutton is still calling on the government to interrupt travel from Indonesia to prevent the disease from entering Australia.
“If the Prime Minister has a reason, if he has an important piece of information that says this is under control, and the coalition is not aware of it… then I respect that,” he told Sydney radio station 2GB.
Mr Dutton called on the Government to properly explain the situation regarding its decision-making on the prevention of foot-and-mouth disease.
“(The Prime Minister) is honestly playing with a loaded gun here,” he said.
“It’s not just an impact on people … who would lose their entire herd, but it would have a huge impact, worth $80 billion, on the economy.”
Meanwhile, industry leaders have reported questions from export partners about whether or not livestock disease has spread in Australia, Senator Watt said.
“It puts an additional workload on the industry to ensure correct information about the situation here is disseminated to the world,” he said.
“It diverts attention from being free of the disease and we have the strongest response Australia has ever imposed to a biosecurity threat.”
Opposition spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said the government was doing too little, too late, to prevent outbreaks of the disease.
“Now go to Western Australia, people are absolutely confused,” she told reporters in Canberra.
“As an island nation, you have the ability to keep such a disease at bay.
“What we are seeing under Murray Watt and Labor is a complete disregard for the potential economic impact, the devastation Australia could wreak.”
A number of biosecurity measures have been put in place to manage travelers from Indonesia, including shoe hygiene mats, information campaigns and increased passenger screening.
Senator Watt marked that further measures would be announced this week.