BIOSECURITYIs Australia’s Biosecurity System Ready for Foot-and-Mouth Disease?
Several reports have highlighted the inevitable and growing threats to Australia’s security and prosperity. Chief among these are the biosecurity risks that threaten one of Australia’s greatest strategic advantages: The country’s ability to feed and clothe twice its own population, its food security, and ultimately its national security.
In 2017, an independent review of the capacity of Australia’s biosecurity system classified it as an essential national asset. The report stated that the system is built on shared responsibility—that is, the cooperation, investment and actions of all governments (state, territory and federal), industry bodies, exporters, importers, farmers, miners, tourists, researchers and the broader Australian community.
The review, along with at least 11 others since 2002, highlighted the inevitable and growing threats to Australia’s security and prosperity. Chief among these are the biosecurity risks that threaten one of Australia’s greatest strategic advantages: our ability to feed and clothe twice our own population, our food security and ultimately our national security.
Australia’s biosecurity system protects our economy, our environment and the way of life of all Australians. The consequences of realized biosecurity risks rate as high as those from climate change and geopolitical volatility and could be more disruptive than a global pandemic. Those closest to the biosecurity system believe that it should be classed as part of Australia’s critical infrastructure, a system of national significance.
One of the risks we face today is foot-and-mouth disease, or FMD. Its arrival here is not inevitable, but it is increasingly likely. Detected last week in the tourist hotspot of Bali, the disease is closer to mainland Australia now than it has been in the 150 years since it was last eradicated. Australia’s biosecurity system works across a continuum that comprises activities pre-border, at the border and post-border. Prevention always being better than a cure, activities pre-border and at the border have been ramped up since FMD was first reported in Indonesia earlier in 2022. But with its progression towards Australia, the probability of an outbreak within the next five years has now risen to nearly 12%.
This necessitates a laser focus on how the biosecurity system reacts post-border should the unthinkable occur. An FMD outbreak in Australia is estimated to have an $80–100 billion direct impact to Australia’s economy. That cost factors in the immediate loss of market access for Australia’s red meat, livestock, wool and dairy products following a reported incursion. That would be an immediate and heavy blow to a nation that exports an average of 70% of what it produces.
