MINISTER for Agriculture Bill Byrne says he is aware of issues on the tick line in the south Burnett and the matter is under “active” discussion.
The landholders bordering the tick line feel they have been fighting a losing battle with a steady incursion of ticks, and are calling on the Department of Agriculture to grow some teeth and prosecute those who flout the law.
The Kingaroy Wondai Proston Tick Eradication Committee, formed over 20 years ago, said there would also be talk of a class action if the government moved the line south.
Mr Byrne said he would not make any absolute statements about where lines or cross-over routes would be.
“I’ve had a number of conversations with our experts looking at where we are, what needs to be done and what resources need to be put in place,” he said.
The Minister said he was aware of the sentiments being expressed over the issue, and while there were those who wanted more government intervention, there were those who wanted less.
“So we are going to try and land this in a sensible way that is informed by fact,” Mr Byrne said.
“There are a variety of options on the table right now, and that is happening as we speak, literally.”
The government in March announced a review of the state’s biosecurity capability and issues surrounding the availability of biosecurity officers would be dealt by this.
Biosecurity Queensland’s workforce was slashed by 23 per cent under the Newman government.
Mr Byrne said Biosecurity Queensland’s full raft of responsibilities will be addressed by the review, and he expected to receive solid recommendations.
“The challenge will be to implement those, particularly if there is an assumption that much greater resources are necessary to meet our obligations in normal circumstances and in surge circumstances,” Mr Byrne said.
The tick issue had been actively discussed.
“I won’t go into the details of it, but there are the corridors that go through the tick line, and the absent landlord issues are well-known to us, and the fact that some appear to be not doing the right thing.”
Mr Byrne said there were regulations that clearly map out what people ought to do.
Meanwhile, south of the border, NSW had the highest number of cattle tick outbreaks in 20 years.
Beef industry leaders told Fairfax that, along with plenty or rain and warmer conditions earlier this year, government cutbacks to biosecurity and tick eradication efforts are also fuelling the increases.
In January, 18,000 head of stock were under eradication programs with 147 properties infested this season, up from last year's 93 new infestations.
There was also a five-fold increase in cases of tick-fever in that state, from the Queensland border to Kempsey, with some individual producers losing significant numbers of cattle.
