"What bugs are going to crawl out of containers this week?"
That is the question that worries NSW Farmers' president James Jackson who has renewed calls for the Federal Government to ramp up biosecurity funding.
With the growing number of recently introduced insect pests, such as serpentine leaf miner, khapra beetle, fall armyworm, Russian wheat aphid and fire ants having hitched their way onto Australian shores in containers, Mr Jackson criticised the biosecurity arrangements for importers.
Hopes of tightening the net were dashed in May when the Government ditched the onshore biosecurity levy - a key recommendation of a 2017 independent review and a 2018-19 federal Budget promise.
A report to the Minister for Agriculture by the Biosecurity Levy Steering Committee, "Biosecurity imports levy: A way forward", in May 2019, said the measure would apply a $10.02 levy per 20 foot container (or equivalent) and non-containerised cargo would incur a levy of $1/tonne and estimated the levy would raise $360 million in revenue, or $325m in underlying cash balance terms across three years.
Mr Jackson said the federal government must re-commit.
"(Federal Agriculture Minister) David Littleproud has not ruled out a container tax, but has told us now is not the time. But when will be the time? When Australian crops are decimated," Mr Jackson said.
"A $10 tax will only add one cent to a wine from Argentina," he said.
Mr Jackson said Khapra beetle crawled out from white goods in Canberra recently, which, if it became endemic in Australia would affect wheat and barley.
He said the Australian flower industry was also exposed due to the difficulty in treating incoming flowers.
"But the bugs that are coming on the flowers can be detrimental to cotton," he said.
Mr Littleproud said the biosecurity levy was delayed because of COVID-19, as the federal government did not want to impose a levy on business in the middle of a pandemic recession.
It's an issue that is heating up between state and federal governments.
NSW Government has allocated $224m this financial year to biosecurity, up from $164m, while the federal government increased its biosecurity spending from $763m last year, to $873m in this year's budget.
"Sadly, in contrast, some states have reduced their biosecurity spending this year and in fact most aren't transparently reporting their biosecurity spending in their budget papers," Mr Littleproud said.
But NSW Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall hit back, saying: "The NSW government fights things once they are in the country; (the Federal Government's) job is to keep the things out...in the first place".
Mr Marshall said it was the companies that brought containers to our nation's shores that should bare the costs.
"We need to use the fact we are an island nation to maximise the effort to keep pests and other diseases out of our country that could decimate agriculture," said Mr Marshall, who has also written a letter to Mr Littleproud about the issue, but is yet get a response.
"If he's not willing to do his job to protect our nation and agriculture then he should get out of the road and let someone else do it," Mr Marshall said.
