Media Release - Acacia Rose, Independent Candidate Federal Eden-Monaro

Equine influenza a Commonwealth quarantine failure

Acacia Rose, Independent Candidate for Eden-Monaro said 'the Equine Influenza outbreak is a failure of Commonwealth Government quarantine procedures almost certainly linked to part-privatisation of public services and impact on the Eastern Creek Quarantine Centre.'

'The Senate Report on the Provisions of the Quarantine Amendment Bill 1998 places the Commonwealth Government right at the centre of the Horse Flu outbreak.'

'According to Chapter 3.2 the Nairn report (Prof. Malcolm Nairn) recommendation 82 gave in principle support to the concept of privatising Commonwealth quarantine stations. The Government's response to the recommendation was:
• Accepted in principle. The operation of existing stations will be reviewed within existing resources. [1]'
'The enormous consequential costs of Equine Influenza to the racing industry as well as to private horse owners and riding stables are significant affecting a range of allied industries and businesses,' she said.

'Australian taxpayers should not have to pick up the bill for industry losses due to the Equine Flu and indeed those in government who have made decisions to change Quarantine practices including part-privatisation of this public service must be brought to account,' she said.

'The costs of government decisions and consequences including Equine Influenza must be borne by the decision makers bringing accountability back to the Commonwealth Government's table without involving taxpayers in footing the bill.'

'Private horse owners as well as industry groups such as the Thoroughbred and Racing Industry have had to bear the cost of government policy failures and decisions and should be compensated by the people who made the decisions.'

Ms Rose said 'the Commonwealth Government has a privatisation agenda that has impacted the Horse Industry and the Liberal-Coalition Party must take responsibility and foot the bill from their private funds and not from taxpayer funds.'

'The time has come for accountability for decisions made by political parties for costly policy decisions and if that means paying for professional indemnity as do other professionals such as doctors, dentists, veterinarians and horse riding enterprises, then so be it.'

'I am concerned about the impact on local race meetings across Eden-Monaro and the impact on businesses here as well as for riding stables and major providers such as Reynella, Cochrane Horse Treks the Snowy Wilderness group, Penderlea, Jingarra Trail Rides, Pambula Trail rides and the Tumut Argalong Trail Rides for instance,' she said.

'There is already a significant potential impact of horse flu on a range of pony and equestrian clubs and events including the Eurobodalla and Monaro clubs and the Jindabyne Equestrian Resort.'

Ms Rose said 'the highly popular Snowy River Festival which enjoys patronage from exceptional horse riders from across the state is only 6 weeks away and there is still uncertainty about the impact of Equine Influenza and whether this will limit the Festival in any way.'

'The Snowy River Festival is an important earner for the region and Dalgety and we cannot afford quarantine breaches to impact on this important Festival.'

'At the moment Eden-Monaro is a Green Zone or protected area from Equine Flu and Commonwealth as well as NSW DPI resources including border checks of horse movements are essential to prevent an outbreak in this region,' she said.

'Now is the time for the local member Gary Nairn to put his weight behind an inquiry into the alleged quarantine breaches and indicate whether the Commonwealth Government will indeed return Australian Quarantine Services to public ownership and management to prevent any more devastating problems of the nature of the Equine Influenza.'

'The potential consequences of further quarantine breaches including potentially foot and mouth disease will cause major losses to our agricultural sector already buckling under climate change, water shortages and the drought, deregulation, the AWB crisis and the so-called free-trade agreements.'

Ms Rose said 'we clearly cannot afford to hand over core government functions such as control of the Australian Quarantine Services to the private sector and risk further quarantine breaches.'