Palaszczuk Government cuts number of biosecurity fees

Published Friday, 17 June, 2016 at 10:30 AM

Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries
The Honourable Leanne Donaldson

The Palaszczuk Government is cutting the number of biosecurity fees charged to farmers and the public.

 

Agriculture Minister Leanne Donaldson said that from 1 July, the number of fees would reduce from 87 to 33.

 

“A key benefit of the new Biosecurity Act 2014 is the streamlining of multiple pieces of legislation into a single Act and that has allowed us to move to a simpler system with fewer fees,” the Minister said.

 

“From 1 July, 54 fees will be discontinued as they are no longer necessary.”

 

Minister Donaldson said the majority of the discontinued fees related to cattle tick services, which have been reduced from 56 fees to just nine.

 

“The new Act will also see biosecurity strengthened by the introduction of additional regulatory tools, such as an enhanced livestock entity registration that will enable us to rapidly trace animal movements in an emergency.

 

“While such new services will have associated fees, we have sought to minimise the impact on business where we can to help them adjust.

 

“The livestock entity registration fee will be subsidised by 66% by the government as there are flow-on benefits to the rest of the community.

 

Payment will also be deferred for three years for those entities with properties already registered with a Property Identification Code at 30 June 2016.

 

“There will be some fee increases due to cost recovery for services that are for a private or commercial benefit, or due to overhead increases, however where the activity is for non-commercial purposes fees are generally not imposed.

 

"The Biosecurity Regulation 2016 has now been approved, and will underpin the new Biosecurity Act 2014 when it commences on 1 July.

 

"The regulations prescribe ways in which a person's general biosecurity obligation can be met to prevent or minimise a biosecurity risk, and includes measures to prevent or control the spread of biosecurity matter, sets maximum acceptable levels of contaminants in carriers, and sets fees."

 

Minister Donaldson said a cost recovery approach was being adopted in accordance with the recommendations of the independent Biosecurity Capability Review.

 

“The review recommended that if the government was to strengthen the state’s biosecurity system then it would need to adopt cost recovery for services provided for commercial benefit,” she said.

 

“Managing the prevention and eradication of animal and plant pests and diseases is costly, and if we are serious about building our biosecurity capability then it needs to be funded.

 

“The new fee framework strikes the right balance between streamlining and simplifying fees, while also minimising costs where possible.

 

“This approach has been extensively consulted on with stakeholders for the past two years.

 

“The government will monitor the implementation of the fee framework, and has committed to also reviewing plant health and animal health inspection fees during 2016/17.”

 

 

 

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