Backing for PM call to keep border with Indonesia open
Farming and business groups and a former top diplomat to Indonesia have backed keeping the border open with Australia’s northern neighbour, warning an overreaction to the foot and mouth disease outbreak risked A$500 million (NZ$553 million) in trade and could be as damaging as the 2011 live cattle ban.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned on Sunday that shutting the border could damage two-way trade and insisted the federal government had introduced the ‘‘strongest ever’’ biosecurity measures to keep the disease out of Australia.
Albanese pushed back at calls from opposition frontbench MPs including Karen Andrews and Barnaby Joyce to consider shutting the border, arguing that ‘‘if we do that . . . then there of course will be a response’’.
‘‘What we’re trying to avoid is an impact, by definition, on our trade. And you don’t do that by just jumping to a position that the former government never ever implemented, [that] no Coalition government has implemented,’’ he said.
‘‘We’re working with not just my department but importantly, the measures that we’ve introduced to have the support of the National Farmers Federation as well as other farming organisations.’’
Australia exported A$534 million worth of live cattle to Indonesia in 2020, a significant portion of the A$20 billion in twoway trade between the countries, and that export market could be severely damaged by a temporary border closure designed to stop the entry of foot and mouth disease.
Queensland beef farmer Don Heatley, who was chairman of Meat and Livestock Australia when the Gillard government imposed the snap live export ban in 2011, said the current government should not repeat that ‘‘catastrophe’’.
‘‘It would be inordinately silly to make a snap decision about the current situation when you see what happened in 2011, that was an absolute disaster for the industry and many people are still recovering from it,’’ he said.
‘‘I don’t think we should shut the borders, ramping up biosecurity layers of protection on our own borders is the best way to go.’’
Australian Meat Industry Council chief executive Patrick Hutchinson said Australia should ‘‘absolutely not shut the border’’ to Indonesia and that ‘‘cooler heads have to prevail’’.
‘‘The key thing I say to people who want a ban is when was the last outbreak globally caused by poo on the boot [of travellers returning from Bali]?’’ he said.
‘‘Remember it has to enter into the livestock food chain and then be consumed by a cloven-hooved animal. What would be high-risk and high probability is illegally smuggled meat products containing the FMD virus. That is where we have to be concentrating, with sniffer dogs and more surveillance of meat products coming in, not just from Indonesia but anywhere [the disease] is endemic.’’