Calls for tougher biosecurity controls after 62,000kg illegal import sentence
Australia's agriculture industry is calling for stronger penalties for breaching biosecurity controls after a woman avoided jail for illegally importing more than 62 tonnes of meat and produce from Thailand to distribute on Sydney's black market.
The items, including raw and cooked pork, frogs, edible insects, beef, chicken, fish, raw prawns and insect-infested fruit, were intercepted at the border in 2021 after a tip-off.
The woman failed to accurately declare the products and on June 11 was sentenced by a District Court judge to a 24-month intensive corrections order and 150 hours of community service.
Tests on the goods showed positive results for diseases, including African swine fever, Newcastle disease and white spot disease, raising concerns across the Australian agricultural industry.
Australian Pork Limited CEO Margo Andrae said the introduction of African swine fever could cost the Australian industry $2.5 billion.
"Australia has incredibly strict biosecurity laws for a very good reason. We don't have the diseases that are out there globally," she said.
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) said the items were tested for trace presence of diseases and positive results did not necessarily indicate a viable presence.
Insect-infested fruit was also seized and subjected to cold storage treatment before inspection.
DAFF's Compliance and Enforcement Division first assistant secretary Anna Brezzo said the detections did not indicate broader outbreaks within Australia.
The detection of white spot disease in the items also worried the Australian prawn industry.
Australian Prawn Farmers Association executive officer Kim Hooper said white spot, while harmless to humans, had the potential to decimate Australia's prawn industry.
Within Australia, the movement of raw prawns from locations where white spot has been detected is banned, but raw prawns can be imported with a permit from countries with white spot disease.
Ms Hooper described the regulations as a "double standard" and called for a consistent approach to imported prawns.
"Fishers and farmers are doing all the right things in that containment area," she said.
"They're not moving raw product out of that containment area. It has to be cooked.
"But we're not seeing that same level of biosecurity at the border — we're not seeing only cooked [prawns] coming across the Australian border.
"So it just beggars belief about how this is actually happening and why our own businesses in Australia are being treated differently to what importers are."
Ms Hooper said the penalties for the woman did not "reflect the scale of the threat" from the illegal importation.
"This was a calculated operation involving false documentation and product substitution. The consequences should be equally serious," she said.
"The government needs to step up. There needs to be increased penalties for deliberate breaches such as this.
"They need to close the regulatory gaps that allow these black market operations to exploit our system and they need to modernise the border protection systems."
Ms Andre agreed stronger penalties were needed to deter further illegal import attempts.
"[It's] great to see that DAFF caught them, but now we need the judicial systems to actually really put the full strength of the penalties in place."
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