Page 11 - National Poultry Newspaper

Farmers excluded from direct carbon burden
Izzy snags a ‘pear’ of deadly bags
EVERY dog has their day and biosecurity de- tector dog Izzy recently had hers – detecting over 10kg of undeclared and illegally imported fruit and meat products in a passenger’s bags.
Head of Biosecurity Lyn O’Connell said the pas- senger had put Australia at risk, as meat products can carry a range of diseases, including foot and mouth disease.
“Izzy was doing some routine sniffing when she responded to a passen- ger’s bag and our bio- security officers soon found out what had caught her nose,” Ms O’Connell said.
“They found almost 8kg of nashi pears, 2kg of oranges, 325g of chicken meat and more than 2kg of pork products that included pig meat, sau- sages and trotters.
“These types of meat products can transmit diseases that would be devastating for Australia, including African swine fever and FMD.
“A further search re- vealed the passenger was also carrying 650g of nashi pears in another bag.
“There is no excuse if you bring these or other biosecurity risk items to Australia.
“Either leave them at home or don’t be sorry and just declare them.”
If it arrived in Australia, FMD could cost our econ- omy billions and take a decade to eradicate.
Fragments of FMD and ASF were recently de- tected in pork products intercepted at Australia’s airports and mail centres, so the risk is real.
The fresh fruit in the passenger’s bag could
have been harbouring diseases and pests such as citrus canker and fruit fly.
Both could have a dev- astating impact on Aus- tralia’s horticulture in- dustries.
The goods were de- stroyed and the passenger was issued an infringe- ment notice.
“Our dogs do a great job sniffing out potential risk items, but every passenger that travels to Australia has an obligation to fol- low our conditions,” Ms O’Connell said.
“It can save you time and money, as well as en- sure you are doing your part to keep our country free of deadly pests and diseases.”
For more information on items that should not be brought to Australia, visit agriculture.gov.au/ travelling
Izzy the Biosecurity detector dog.
THE Australian Labor Party’s climate change policy detail released re- cently provides a com- prehensive framework and pathway forward.
National Farmers’ Fed- eration CEO Tony Mahar particularly welcomed Labor’s commitment to exclude agriculture from the so-called ‘Safeguard Mechanism’ changes.
“An assurance that agri- culture won’t directly bear any additional burden in reaching Labor’s proposed 45 percent emissions re- duction target by 2030 is positive, as is a guaran- tee that a carbon tax or a carbon pricing mechanism will not be introduced,” Mr Mahar said.
“We do however have reservations about the im- pact a 45 percent target could have on agriculture as a participant in the val- ue chain.
“For example, increased fuel transport or electric- ity costs are likely to have a consequential impact on the agricultural sector.”
Mr Mahar said the NFF supported the renewed focus on carbon farming initiative methodologies to the value of $40 million.
“This will provide the opportunity to refine and expand options for land- based abatement,” he said.
While the lack of fur- ther funding support for an emissions reduction fund was disappointing, the NFF noted the in- creased requirement under the Safeguard Mechanism should create more private sector demand.
“Our vision for agricul- ture to achieve $100 billion in farmgate output by 2030 requires getting the land use balance right – a combina- tion of diversifying income streams and growing ag- riculture through technol- ogy and intensification,” Mr Mahar said.
“The NFF cautiously welcomes the availability of international credits, we are aware that there is not yet an international frame- work to assess credible credits.
“We will need to de- termine and/or maintain credible assessment.
“The NFF view is in- ternational credits are not sufficiently credible and some market distortion is likely possible given how robust Australian Carbon Credit Units are consid- ered to be.”
Mr Mahar said the NFF’s main reservation on a first reading of the policy was the focus on land clearing.
“This is especially wor- rying given the news that excess Kyoto credits will not be counted towards the Paris commitment,” he said.
“The majority of the Kyoto credits were gained from prevention of land clearing through a legal framework which offered no compensation for a re- moved property right.”
The NFF welcomed La- bor Agriculture spokes- person Joel Fitzgibbon’s commitment to rewarding farmers for the environ- mental benefits they de- liver every day on behalf of all Australians.
“The NFF has long cam- paigned to have biodiver- sity assets and efforts fi- nancially recognised and we were delighted to have Mr Fitzgibbon confirm his support for a signifi- cant agriculture biodiver- sity stewardship fund,” Mr Mahar said.
“This seems to be a key component of the ALP’s proposed changes to en- vironmental law structure.
“We reiterate the need to include the farm sector in the discussion to ensure agriculture is never again used as a scapegoat to achieve climate outcomes without reward.”
Mr Mahar also positively noted Labor’s commit- ment to measures to sup- port a more sustainable forestry industry and an investment of $2 million in the red meat sector’s carbon-neutral-by-2030 target.
“We’ll have more to say on the policy proposal, pending further analysis,” Mr Mahar said.
“The NFF has, and will continue to, ensure agri- culture has a strong voice in our nation’s prolonged climate and energy policy ‘debate’.”
Working to strengthen agricultural innovation
THE Government has begun work to imple- ment the Ernst & Young report and help agricul- ture become a $100 bil- lion sector by 2030.
Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud said a roundtable was held re- cently to engage with gov- ernment and industry on the report findings and discuss next steps.
“EY examined whether our existing agricultural innovation system was fit for the future and would continue boosting produc- tivity,” Minister Little- proud said.
“The report has been re- leased in full and outlines our strengths and short- comings, and a vision for the future so we can hit that $100 billion target.
“I commissioned the re- port and now is the time for action and that’s why we held this roundtable, to get key R&D and innova- tion leaders to the table and get things moving.
“Participants at the
roundtable will take ac- tion on the key recom- mendations from the re- port.”
This will include con- centrating on ground work in the regions to have more farmers adopt agtech and foodtech in- novations.
“This could help more farmers use all available agricultural data when they make decisions,” Minister Littleproud said.
“There is agreement we need to improve our innovation system and increase returns on our R&D investment.
“If we keep doing the same thing while our competitors improve then we’re going backwards.
“If we want Australia’s agricultural sector to con- tinue to grow, we need to keep innovating and en- courage farmers to adopt all available technology and innovation.”
The full report is avail- able at agriculture.gov.au/ cultivateaginnovation
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National Poultry Newspaper, April 2019 – Page 11