The government is trying to revive its controversial Biosecurity Protection Levy - or create another portal for producers to make a "direct contribution" to Commonwealth coffers - through a specially-created advisory panel.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
Many agriculture industry stakeholders believed the last rites were issued to the controversial BPL after Senate crossbenchers informed the government of their opposition to the legislation prior to it being tabled for a vote on May 15.
However, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry used a recent out-of-session meeting of the Sustainable Biosecurity Funding Advisory Panel to explore options and ask agri-political bodies for ideas on how farmers could pay more for biosecurity.
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt announced the creation of the panel in February to coincide with the introduction of the Agriculture (Biosecurity Protection) Levies Bill 2024 into the House of Representatives.
Mr Watt said at the time that the panel was in response to industry demands for transparency over how the levy - intended to be funnelled into consolidated revenue - would be spent and to provide feedback for areas of priority funding.
The farm lobby increased its lobbying of crossbench senators and the Greens from that time in anticipation of a Senate showdown.
When the bill was ultimately blocked the panel's role was switched out of necessity to a vehicle to revamp the BPL or create another mechanism from scratch that would collect money from producers for biosecurity.
Coincidentally, the farm lobby has been ramping up pressure on the crossbench in recent weeks in pushing for a Senate inquiry into Labor's proposed ban of the live sheep by sea trade.
The activity has intensified since a parliamentary advisory report into the Export Control Amendment (Ending Live Sheep Exports by Sea) Bill 2024 released last Friday recommended that the bill be passed to "absolutely" end the trade by May 1, 2028.
Meanwhile, DAFF's deputy secretary biosecurity, operations and compliance group Justine Saunders said the BPL and biosecurity funding process was an "ongoing collaborative engagement and partnership" to ensure strengthened biosecurity outcomes for Australia.
"At this meeting the Panel discussed next steps for the Biosecurity Protection Levy and possible alternate approaches for primary producers to make a direct contribution to Commonwealth biosecurity," she said.
"Overall, there was consensus from Panel members that there was no support for an alternative producer funded contribution."
Ms Saunders said the panel's advice would be "provided to the government to inform considerations about the future of the policy".
"Not withstanding this, the Panel expressed an interest in discussing broader funding mechanisms for Commonwealth biosecurity, including from other system beneficiaries and risk creators in future meetings," she said.
The levy is part of Labor's $1 billion sustainable biosecurity funding model and while producer groups widely supported the overall policy, the BPL itself attracted significant criticism from an agriculture sector unhappy with a range of aspects, including modelling around funding, the lack of a container tax on importers and a lack of clarity around collection points.
Panel members at the recent meeting included the Animal Health Australia Industry Forum, Australian Dairy Farmers, Australian Forest Products Association, Australian Fresh Produce Alliance, Australian Grape and Wine, Australian Pork Limited, Cattle Australia, Cotton Australia, the Freight and Trade Alliance, Grain Producers Australia, GrainGrowers Limited, the Invasive Species Council, Plant Health Australia, Seafood Industry Australia, Sheep Producers Australia and WoolProducers Australia.
More than 50 agricultural producer representative groups across sectors as diverse as grains and livestock through to aquaculture and horticulture penned an open letter to the Federal Government earlier this year to voice their opposition to the BPL.
Meanwhile, the department also delivered a presentation at the meeting on the work being undertaken to refresh the Department's Commonwealth Biosecurity 2030 Roadmap.
Panel members provided strategic perspectives regarding biosecurity priorities to the department, along with discussing the importance of financial reporting and data as critical inputs into the Panel's deliberations and development of advice.
The panel's next meeting is scheduled for late August.
The federal government has published the individual commodity calculations that farmers wpuld be forced to pay if the BPL was introduced.
