Tight budget puts pressure on capacity
CPSU deputy national secretary Rupert Evans said the clear view of
members was that budget cuts, the adoption of a risk-based approach,
and industry self-regulation would lead to more biosecurity incursions.
"Our members would be saddened and even gutted that they might be
proven right," he said.
The biosecurity approach is based on risk analysis and shared
responsibility between governments and industry under the
Intergovernmental Agreement on Biosecurity.
A review of the IGAB found a tight fiscal environment for governments
had placed significant pressure on biosecurity budgets and their
capacity to meet biosecurity commitments.
Not enough people on job
The union said it worried about the impact of efficiency measures.
"In 2013-14 there was a more than 10 per cent cut to the budget to
Department of Agriculture biosecurity, and it was said at the time, this
was going to lead to not enough people to do the job," Mr Evans said.
"Another part of risk-based intervention is that it needs to be based on
sound and unbiased evidence, not just on simply reducing costs.
In
2016–17, the major WSD outbreak in Queensland prawn farms led to a
six-month
suspension of uncooked prawn imports into Australia. Very
high levels of WSSV
were found in imported uncooked prawns, destined
for retail outlets across the country,
which had already passed, Australia’s
border biosecurity controls. This
indicated a major failure of Australia’s
biosecurity system, which was not
providing an appropriate level of
protection.
During
this review, I found several deficiencies in the management of the
biosecurity
risk of uncooked prawn imports, with broader implications for
Australia’s
biosecurity risk management more generally. I found that
specific policy
elements and their implementation had sowed the seeds
of failure many years before,
while progressive and cumulative acts,
omissions and systemic factors at many
levels exacerbated the risks over
time. Many of these failings have been
swiftly addressed by the department
and other stakeholders, but more needs to
be done to manage the biosecurity
risks of prawn imports in the future. I have
made recommendations to improve
this biosecurity risk management framework and
its ability to deal with
ongoing and emerging challenges. Long-term adequate
resourcing will be a
key success factor in this endeavour.
The
importation of uncooked prawns and other seafood into Australia will
continue
to pose significant and changing challenges for the department
and industry.
The recent WSD outbreak in Queensland, and the subsequent
findings of massive importation
of WSSV-infected prawns, despite previous
import requirements intended to keep
this virus out, highlight the need for the department to remain vigilant,
proactively review and update import requirements and policies, and maintain
excellent communication with both government and industry stakeholders. Above
all, detecting and deterring deliberate or inadvertent failures to implement
biosecurity risk management policies effectively must be a priority.
Governments and aquatic industries must cooperate to resource and implement
these efforts. Failure to do so will imperil the future development of a
sustainable and profitable aquaculture sector in Australia.
A highly
destructive virus has again been detected in supermarket prawns
despite
tightened import restrictions introduced after a disease outbreak
decimated
south-east Queensland's prawn farming industry.
The shock results come
as a Four Corners investigation reveals how some
ruthless seafood importers
have been deliberately evading Australia's
biosecurity defences in a hunt for
profit, exploiting a quarantine regime
identified as "remarkably
naive" in a top-level inquiry.
The revelations raise
troubling questions about the nature of Australia's preparedness to combat a
slew of exotic diseases and pests that have
the potential to wreak carnage on
the economy.
Brian Jones, former
adviser to the Inspector-General of Biosecurity,
said the incursion of white
spot disease in 2016 "won't be the last".
"The Government is
not fulfilling its duty to protect the border," he said.
In the face of soaring
international trade, scientists, industry executives
and former government
officials have told Four Corners that Australia's
biosecurity defences have
been simply inadequate…..
In a scathing review Mr
Jones co-authored, the Inspector-General found the devastating outbreak of
white spot was "a major failure of Australia's
biosecurity system".
Critical to this failure
was a policy decision that allowed seafood importers
to unpack shipping
containers into cold stores unsupervised by any
government officials.
The policy afforded
rogue players days and sometimes weeks to disguise
dodgy consignments from
inspectors, including by substituting diseased
prawns for clean ones.
The Inspector-General
found the department had placed "too much trust
in importers to do the
right thing".
"The department
demonstrated a remarkable level of naivety about the
potential for importers to
wilfully circumvent import conditions for any
class of prawns that required
viral testing."
The department conceded
to Four Corners there were "significant
shortcomings in its handling of
this issue", and insisted it had "taken
substantial action to address
them".
Import conditions were
tightened midway through last year after a
six-month trade suspension was
lifted.
As of July 2017, no
containers could be opened except by biosecurity
officers.
Yet the virus — which
poses no harm to humans — has reared its head
again.
Then, in late May, the
Department of Agriculture quietly released a note
that said 12 consignments of
prawns — stopped at the wharves under
the new "enhanced" regime — had
tested positive for the disease.
Fresh testing reveals
white spot
Now, Four Corners can
reveal the virus is still getting past the
department's frontline.
Testing conducted for
the program found traces of the virus present in
30 per cent of prawn samples
purchased from a range of supermarket
outlets in the south-east Queensland
area.
The samples were
examined by University of the Sunshine Coast
professor Wayne Knibb, an expert
in the genetics of marine animals.
He tested green prawns from 10 major retail
outlets.
"We found about a
third of the material that we looked had evidence
of white spot DNA in
it," he said.
Professor Knibb's
testing has been independently verified by a separate
laboratory.
"Clearly, if we can
find in a very limited sample 30 per cent of samples
that were in the history
connected or in contact with the virus, then
clearly we're playing with fire
here," he said.
"We have a route of
a virus that is a particularly dangerous virus and
shown worldwide just how
destructive it can be. It's damaged whole
national economies, and it's cost
billions of dollars."
Four Corners has
confirmed that supermarket-bought prawns are still
being used by recreational
fishers on the Logan River upstream from
prawn farms…..
It has
been put to us that some front-line officers working for the
Department over
the past decade have engaged in any or several of
the following: corrupt
conduct including the acceptance of financial
benefits from importers, and the
extortion of some importers in return
for financial benefits. Is the
Department's aware of any cases of this
nature or similar in the past decade?
All allegations of corruption in this
area of our business are referred
to the Australian Commission for Law
Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI).
We cannot comment on current or ongoing
investigations for
operational security reasons. ACLEI have investigated a
number of
matters involving corrupt conduct of departmental staff and publish
all
results on their website.
