Commissioner prepares horse flu inquiry report

The head of the Federal Government's horse flu inquiry, Ian Callinan, will spend the next three weeks writing his report into how the EI virus entered Australia, after public hearings ended in Sydney.
The Commonwealth is already on notice that its entire quarantine system needs a shake-up, with the Commissioner saying public confidence in the performance of AQIS and Biosecurity Australia is at an all-time low.
On the final day, Counsel Assisting the Inquiry, Tony Meagher, urged the Commissioner to find that the virus escaped from the government's Eastern Creek station, after Japanese horses were imported to Australia on the 8th of August last year.
He submitted Australia's quarantine system had failed and there were no adequate lines of communication.
The six-month inquiry also heard evidence that AQIS's management structure was fragmented, that senior bureaucrats were often blase about the risk involved in the importation of live horses, and quarantine facilities were rarely audited.
The Commonwealth has already flagged its resistance to Mr Callinan's draft report, suggesting some recommendations have not been costed and may not sit comfortably with existing government policy.
Meanwhile, the racing industry is praising Peter McGauran's handling of the horse flu outbreak as Agriculture Minister, saying he responded quickly and generously.
The industry also says that Mr McGauran gave assurances the industry wouldn't have to pay for the outbreak, if it was proved the Quarantine Service was to blame.
That's pressuring the new government, in the light of suggestions a new levy could be imposed on the horse industry.
Racing New South Wales chief executive, Peter V'landys, says the industry will lobby the new Agriculture Minister to keep Mr McGauran's promise.
"Look, we're waiting for Callinan's report and we will certainly be lobbying very hard to Mr Burke that the Government honour the previous government's commitment to pay for the cost of erradication and containment, because we had no part in it," he says.
"It wasn't our negligence, we were just a victim."