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Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Food Security, Fisheries and Forestry, John Cobb today welcomed the face that Agriculture Minister Tony Burke has listened to the Coalition and is now ordering an Import Risk Analysis for beef imports destined for Australia.
The announcement made today by the Minister, comes on the eve of debate in the Senate of the Coalition's, Food Importation (Bovine Meats Standards) 2010, Private Members Bill.
“This is a very obvious decision that has taken the Government an alarmingly long time to make”, Mr Cobb said.
“It is an improvement on their policy however the Agriculture Minister should now guarantee that he will not allow beef into this nation from BSE affected countries, which is produced at a lower standard than Australian beef producers and processors are legislatively required too.”
“This policy is one of the three key pillars to the Coalition's Bill which will be introduced into the Senate this week.”
Mr Cobb says the move was a victory for common sense and the Nationals/Liberal Coalition.
“This decision to undertake a rigorous science based Import Risk Analysis will ensure that the decision to allow beef in from countries which have had a BSE outbreak will be based an accurate, detailed and factual scientific evaluation.”
Mr Cobb says he hopes this is the first step towards a much safer and much smarter policy to protect the jobs of the 121,000 Australian's who are directly involved in beef industry in Australia and $5 billion export market.
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