Car makers need to clean vehicles before shipping them to Australia, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt says.
It presents a major challenge for Watt’s department, which is already facing severe financial woes because of the soaring costs of delivering services. “But in the real world, I’d certainly hope that over this calendar year, we can make some real improvements.”The number of new cars referred for decontamination soared by 88 per cent over a year, from 17,700 in 2021 to 33,300 in 2022, despite the number of vehicles imported into the country growing by just 17 per cent.
Argentina had the greatest percentage of contaminated vehicles, with 2900 of the 4500 cars imported being flagged for cleaning. Watt said Australia’s biosecurity system was under pressure because of the “explosion in the number of risks that we’re seeing” including climate change-induced factors and the increase in package and parcel movements.
He said the biosecurity system worked well under normal circumstances but was now under immense pressure due to manufacturers overseas clearing bottlenecks to catch up with their orders.Joe ArmaoAnderson said the detection of risky biosecurity material on a single car, including foreign seeds and insects, meant entire batches had to be cleaned and thoroughly checked, adding to the delays.
Unlike other government departments, the agriculture department depends heavily on the revenue it gets from the services it provides to industry rather than just relying on funding through taxpayers.