With viral fragments of Foot and Mouth Disease detected in Melbourne, Primary Industries Minister Jo Palmer needs to urgently increase vigilance in Tasmania.
Ms Palmer and the Rockliff-Ferguson Government have done the bare minimum to bolster Tasmania's biosecurity in the past week.
Now Ms Palmer and the government need to go much further, moving now to establish more stringent measures, including the implementation of electronic tracking of livestock and providing greater support to critical biosecurity staff.
While this is a significant exercise, it is vital compared to the devastation an outbreak could cost the state and billions of dollars generated by the industry.
Ms Palmer needs to ensure that the state has tightest possible biosecurity measures for people and products entering Tasmania from every flight and port.
We must use the fact that Tasmania is an island to our advantage, much like we did with the COVID pandemic.
The fact is the Liberal Government should have had a plan ready to go once alarms were raised and well before this interstate detection but their response has been weak and slow.
Now it must be an absolute priority.
Shadow Minister for Primary Industries
