Guy Barnett,Minister for Primary Industries and Water
The Tasmanian Liberal Government remains committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of Tasmanians, and the 2020-21 State Budget will ensure our strong border controls are maintained as we continue to recover from COVID-19.
Biosecurity staff at our airports and seaports have played a critical role in the Tasmanian Government's COVID-19 response, including the screening of all passenger arrivals in Tasmania to uphold travel restrictions and quarantine requirements.
We are taking action to ensure this continues and the Budget locks in $6 million for the delivery of traveller assessment and border control across the State can continue, along with the continued operation of the G2G PASS app and Tas e-Travel systems.
With our borders now reopened to safe States and Victoria likely to follow soon, this will be more important than ever, and this funding will ensure our borders remain strong and flexible to continue protecting Tasmanians from the threat of COVID-19.
And importantly, this is only an initial allocation, and should the COVID situation change in other states, we will not hesitate to increase it if required.
It also ensures that Biosecurity Tasmania can also continue to maintain the state's strict biosecurity requirements and protect the State from weeds, pests and disease.
The $6 million allocated in the Budget is in addition to the $2.6 million Securing our Borders initiative that continues to support frontline service staff, education and awareness programs, and improved biosecurity preparedness and emergency response capacity.
Our support for strong border control is another way in which the Tasmanian Government is protecting Tasmanians during COVID-19.
