WA Agriculture Minister announces $32m biosecurity boost ahead of this year’s State Budget

More than $32 million has been set aside in the upcoming State Budget to boost the biosecurity measures designed to protect WA’s livestock industry. As part of the funding, $10.4 million will go towards improving the State’s ability to respond to animal disease outbreaks by increasing field personnel and improving veterinary testing capability and capacity, alongside delivering emergency training and exercises. It will also help create the equivalent of 14 new full-time biosecurity jobs at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development to strengthen its emergency response teams. Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis made the announcement at Glenridge Park, 20km northwest of Mt Barker, on April 27. Ms Jarvis said some of the money would also go towards regional private practice veterinarians to access training so they are available to support the DPIRD in the event of any outbreak. She said the risk of industry-threatening outbreaks from foot and mouth diseases, and lumpy skin disease, last year had played into funding for extra biosecurity in the 2023-24 Budget. “The reality is the risk of animal diseases is increasing,” she said. “We have more international travel, we have people still bringing food products into Australia illegally and shipping containers bringing pests and diseases. “The biosecurity cost across Australia is going up, so this is a response to the fact we need to be more prepared here in the State.” A further $22.2 million has been set aside to assist the industry transition to a mandatory sheep and goat electronic identification system. The eID system provides a lifetime record of each animal’s movement and is set to become the industry standard at the start of 2025 to reinforce national traceability to aid efficient biosecurity responses. Ms Jarvis said the funding was in addition to the $3.4 million already provided by the State Government to launch its Tag Incentive Payment discount scheme. “By making this announcement today we know that WA farmers can get ready, we can get the infrastructure in place, we can make sure the systems are fully tested and ready for that implementation at the national level,” she said. Glenridge Park’s David Slade, who is also also the WA Farmers livestock section vice president, said he and his son Andrew had implemented the eID system more than three years ago. “Before that, it was a visual-based system and you can’t rely on a visual-based system anymore,” he said. “If you read 100 tags there is always a chance of getting one or two wrong, whereas the eIDs are 100 per cent.” He said the accurate “traceability” of animals using eIDs would certainly increase response times to disease outbreaks and that the funding announcement would help WA remain at the forefront. The full Budget will be handed down by the State Government on May 12.