Albo refuses to shut border with Indonesia

ANTHONY Albanese is standing firm on his refusal to shut the border between Australia and Indonesia, despite building concerns over foot and mouth disease.

With Indonesian authorities appearing to have lost control of the virus as it spreads across 22 provinces, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has handed down sweeping biosecurity powers to Australia’s Border Force at airports to keep the disease out of the country.

The Prime Minister said the actions were the “strongest ever measures introduced by an Australian government” to deal with an outbreak of the deadly virus, which could see an $80bn wipe-out of the Australian livestock industry.

Despite calls from Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and the Nationals to close the border to the popular holiday destination, Mr Albanese said such a move was not yet necessary.

The PM said Senator Watt was doing “everything within our power to stop this disease coming into Australia, which, of course, would have a severe impact on our economy”.

“What we’re trying to avoid is an impact by definition on our trade,” Mr Albanese told Sky News on Sunday morning.

“And you don’t do that by just jumping to a position that the former government never, ever implemented.

“No Coalition government has implemented the strong measures that we have announced and put in place during this current issue as it’s been rolled out.”

Mr Albanese said the measures introduced had been backed by the National Farmers Federation as well as other farming organisations.

“I thank them for the cooperation, the advice and engagement that they’re having with the government,” he said, labelling the issue “absolutely critical”.