Farming and business groups and a former top diplomat to Indonesia have backed keeping the border open with Australia’s northern neighbour, warning an over-reaction to the foot and mouth disease outbreak risked $500 million in trade and could be as damaging as the 2011 live cattle ban.
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”. “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.”
Those measures were not yet in place at Melbourne airport on Sunday. A Department of Agriculture spokesman said the shoe mats were “undergoing testing” at major airports, and that the department “will need the support of airports to put them in place”.