Biosecurity stronger than ever before

Biosecurity Tasmania is stronger than it has ever been, it has more funding than ever before and our island is better protected as a result.

As a Government we take very seriously our responsibility to protect our reputation for producing fresh, safe and premium produce, and our relative disease free status.

That’s why we’ve invested an additional $5 million in biosecurity, strengthening the frontline.

Today, we saw another desperate act, from an increasingly desperate Opposition, which was completely wrong and nothing but a shameless scaremongering attempt.

Let’s get the facts on the table:

Fact: We invested an additional $900,000 into biosecurity in our first Budget;

Fact: We abolished the Fox Eradication Taskforce, which Labor had chasing imaginary foxes around the state, and we reinvested that into education, health and biosecurity;

Fact: We invested an additional $4 million in this year’s Budget;

Fact: As a result of this investment, our target is for detector dogs to screen 100 per cent of flights coming into our major airports. Under Labor and the Greens, that was only 40 per cent;

Fact: We’ve introduced a new three-stage off-shore biosecurity clearance system with the TT-Line which means every vehicle is inspected at Port Melbourne and there are targeted and random inspections in Devonport; and

Fact: As a result of this, we have doubled the amount of Quarantine Risk Material seized, over 12 tonnes seized and a further 3,600 items referred for further inspection in Devonport.
Jeremy Rockliff, Minister for Primary Industries and Water