Although the state government has not released its biosecurity regulations, which include the management of cattle ticks, AgForce knows what it wants.
Speaking from a St Lawrence property in central Queensland on Monday, AgForce cattle president Bim Struss said the organisation supported a two-tick zone.
He met with the Minister for Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries Bill Byrne last week, but said he can’t say a lot until the regulations come out.
“We would like to see a mosaic of properties making up the tickline, so those properties that have worked hard [to keep ticks at bay] stay in the tick-free zone,” Mr Struss said.
“We also need support for those producers who control the borders, and we need to ensure the government has the teeth to maintain the line, so those who don’t comply have the full force of the law on them.”
Mr Struss said AgForce would also like to see a biosecurity access pathway for those who want to take cattle from infected areas to the processors and feedlots in the tick-free area.
A permit would see money go into a fund that could be accessed for any biosecurity clean up, for example if there was a truck rollover in the tick-free area.
AgForce has also asked the government to maintain its infrastructure, including clearing dips, and would like to look after those who have spent years maintaining the tick line.
The biosecurity regulations are also looking at property registrations for those who own livestock, beehives or more than 100 captive birds.
According to feedback to AgForce, a Property Identification Code (PIC) fee was looking likely.
“We are saying we don’t want one, but if it does come then we want that money to go into a biosecurity fund,” Mr Struss said.
The proposed PIC fee was presented as part of wider changes to the Biosecurity regulations and open to feedback last year.
There are three options. One is to continue property registrations with no fee; the second is to introduce a fee based on the full cost of providing the service - $357.55 for three years; the third is to introduce a fee that is subsidised at 66 per cent - $119.20 over three years.
It was met with fierce opposition from many property owners.
“So in other words,” wrote one producer on the Biosecurity Queensland Facebook account, “ the primary producers, who are already struggling to survive the drought and feed their livestock, get slugged with yet another ‘tax’, while the hobby farmer, many of whom are unaware of the biosecurity rules in place already, get off free. Should be the other way around.”
