The federal government is being accused of allowing “trade to trump biosecurity” over proposed changes that industry says will “weaken” and “roll back” testing of potentially diseased raw prawn imports.<\/p>\n
In November, the Federal Department of Agriculture released its proposed ‘guidelines for the evaluation of overseas pre-export testing’ of raw prawns headed to Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
White spot disease is deadly to prawns contained in aquaculture ponds. (Supplied: DigsFish Services)<\/p>\n
Currently, authorities test samples from 100 per cent of the containers of uncooked prawns that arrive in Australia.<\/p>\n
But under the proposed changes, testing would be carried out offshore, before export, by “competent authorities” within foreign governments.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Australian Prawn Farmers Association executive officer Kim Hooper believes prawns should be cooked before being allowed into Australia. (ABC News: Tom Forbes)<\/p>\n
“We’re very, very concerned,” Australian Prawn Farmers Association chief executive Kim Hooper said.<\/p>\n
“This is not a minor technical change; it’s a rollback that reduces certainty.”<\/p>\n
A letter leaked to industry last Friday and seen by the ABC, revealed that between the 2020-2021 and 2024-25 financial years, 22 containers of raw prawns from Vietnam and Thailand failed testing on arrival.<\/p>\n
It advised that the diseased consignments tested positive for either white spot or yellowhead disease (which are deadly to farmed prawns but do not harm humans) and had to be “re-exported or destroyed”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A drone shot of a disused prawn farm at Palmers Island on the Clarence River near Yamba NSW, October 2023. (ABC News: Kingsley Haxton)<\/p>\n
‘Unjust double standard’<\/p>\n
White spot disease has devastated prawn farming on Queensland’s Logan River and New South Wales’ Clarence River since Australia’s first outbreak in 2016.<\/p>\n
Farmers and wild-caught fishers south of Caloundra and in northern New South Wales cannot move prawns out of their regions without first cooking them.<\/p>\n
“It’s an incredible double standard, so the trade for them is unjust,” Ms Hooper said.<\/p>\n
“Importers have a better trade deal than what our own local farmers and fishers do.”<\/p>\n
Ms Hooper said the proposed rules treat imported prawns more leniently than any other raw animal protein, including imported pork.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Despite industry pleas, recreational fishers are still using imported raw prawns as bait. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)<\/p>\n
At the time of the first white spot outbreak, Australia’s then inspector-general of biosecurity, Helen Scott-Orr, said the source of the Logan River infection was suspected to be imported uncooked supermarket prawns used as bait.<\/p>\n
‘Backward step to the bad old days’<\/p>\n
Ben Diggles, an aquatic animal health specialist who has given biosecurity import risk assessments for decades to industry and government, was scathing of the proposed changes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dr Ben Diggles says the only way to stop disease spreading is to cook all imported prawns. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)<\/p>\n
“It’s definitely a backward step to the bad old days when we had inadequate controls that allowed white spot into the country,” Dr Diggles said.<\/p>\n
“Because of inadequate funding, they’re devolving responsibility for our border controls to countries which have already shown that they can’t keep these diseases out.”<\/p>\n
Dr Diggles said higher levels of protection were being enforced for prawns travelling from Queensland’s white spot zone to Western Australia than from other countries.<\/p>\n
“These countries have a range of other diseases that are still not even being tested for.”<\/p>\n
Dr Diggles said countries, including New Caledonia, have kept disease out by requiring all imported prawn commodities to be cooked.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Queensland Seafood Industry Association executive officer David Bobbermen is concerned about the proposed import changes. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)<\/p>\n
Queensland Seafood Industry Association executive officer David Bobbermen described the proposed testing changes as “short-sighted”.<\/p>\n
“It beggars belief, the financial consequences of having more white spot or any other marine disease spread in our waterways would be catastrophic,” Mr Bobbermen said.<\/p>\n
Mr Bobberman said that the QSIA had warned the federal government of the risk of introducing disease in 2006, 10 years before the first white spot outbreak.<\/p>\n
“I hope we’re not right again,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I just don’t get why a government would allow the relaxation of testing on arrival.”<\/p>\n
Wild banana prawns from the Logan River killed by white spot disease. (Supplied: DigsFish services)<\/p>\n
Further scientific work required<\/p>\n
In a statement, a Federal Agriculture Department spokesperson said the “Australian Government will never compromise on biosecurity which protects Australia’s $100 billion agriculture, fisheries and forestry industries and our environment”.<\/p>\n
“Any pre-export testing arrangements would only be approved following a robust and comprehensive scientific assessment, and once countries have met Australia’s high standards for equivalence.”<\/p>\n
(L-R) Glen Kelly Mirani MP, Tony Perrett and prawn farmer David Symons. (Supplied: Qld Department of Primary Industries)<\/p>\n
Queensland’s Minister for Primary Industries, Tony Perrett said it was deeply concerning that the Albanese government “is considering exposing our seafood environment to diseases and pests from overseas”.<\/p>\n
Shared concerns<\/p>\n
In a joint media statement the Australian Prawn Farmers Association and Australian Council of Prawn Fisheries called on the federal government to maintain 100 per cent on-arrival testing for uncooked prawns grown in any country not demonstrably disease-free.<\/p>\n
The groups called on people to support the industry by choosing Australian wild-caught and farmed seafood this Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The federal government is being accused of allowing “trade to trump biosecurity” over proposed changes that industry says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[6634,188697,64,63,9326,188716,75,188715,128,11942,188717],"class_list":{"0":"post-339543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-agriculture","9":"tag-aquaculture","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-biosecurity","13":"tag-commercial-fishing","14":"tag-environment","15":"tag-prawn","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-sunshine-coast","18":"tag-white-spot-disease"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}