Australia to Keep Borders Open to Indonesia Amid Foot and Mouth Outbreak

Australian Minister for Agriculture Murray Watt debates at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on July 4, 2019. Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images

Australian Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has said that the country would not ban entry to travellers from Indonesia amid worries of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD).

Speaking to Sky News Australia, Watt said the federal government had not considered shutting the border.

“We have no plans to close the border, either to Indonesia or to any of the other many countries that have foot and mouth disease,” he said, in response to calls from several opposition MPs.

Watt criticised the opposition for “playing politics” with the agriculture industry and said the previous Morrison government would not have implemented such measures.

He also said the federal Labor government had a “well-established plan” to deal with the outbreak if it occurred in Australia.

However, he was confident the disease could be kept out of the country, saying Australia’s biosecurity was one of the best in the world.

Opposition Calls for Border Closure

Shadow Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said the federal government needed to do whatever it took to ensure FMD did not appear in Australia.

“Labor needs to be doing much more than it already is to prevent that disease coming into Australia,” she told Sky News.

“This is a race, and Labor is barely out of the starting blocks.”

Liberal MP Karen Andrews speaks during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Aug. 23, 2021. Rohan Thomson/Getty Images

Regarding closing the border, farming bodies said that was a drastic measure.

“We rely on this bilateral trade between the two countries. I don’t know how you would justify doing that to Indonesia when foot and mouth is endemic in other countries,” Victorian Farmers Federation President Emma Germano said in comments obtained by AAP.

“There would be an economic impact, and we want to ensure we keep trade open.

“It’s vital Australians understand what’s at stake, and the need to be hyper-vigilant about what food products they bring back.”

FMD Viral Fragments Detected In Melbourne

The agriculture minister’s announcement comes just one day after Australian authorities detected viral fragments of FMD and African swine fever in imported pork products in Melbourne on July 20.

The products, believed to be made in China, was seized from a retailer in Melbourne’s central business district as part of routine surveillance.

Watt said this was the first time authorities had found viral fragments in a retail setting and described the discovery as “disturbing.”

“This is not the first time in Australian history that we have picked up foot and mouth disease viral fragments in meat products. It’s happened a number of other times in airport settings,” he told reporters in Brisbane.

“I want to assure people that our systems have worked, we have monitored this, we have undertaken surveillance operations, and these products have been found, tested and now seized.”

Imported pork product from China contaminated with FMD viral fragments. Courtesy of Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

At the same time, the minister said the government would investigate how the products entered Australia, and prosecution was likely to follow.

Watt also said the fact that the pork products came from China rather than Indonesia, saying Australia needed to remain vigilant—the country remains free from FMD.

So far the federal government has ordered sanitation mats be rolled out across international airports, with travellers from Indonesia required to ensure their shoes have been sanitised.

The new measure will be implemented in the week commencing July 18, starting at Darwin and Cairns airports.