The budget has put a focus biosecurity in Australia, Colin Bettles Chief Executive Officer of Grain Producers Australia said, "we still need to drill down into it further. It's not something on the surface that we support but what we have been doing is asking for greater investment into preventative biosecurity in particular to stop these pests getting in."
Khapra beetle is of great concern and could cost the industry according to Mr Bettles the beetle would be a, "$15.5 billion dollar hit" to the grain industry and could "shutdown markets."
"International trade is getting bigger and more complex and the movement of containers from different countries across the world means that they're little tiny threats and the goods that are carried in seed containers is increasing."
The Federal Labor Government is paying for biosecurity by adding taxes to farmers, Nationals Leader David Littleproud believes that levies should be placed on importers not our growers.
"This is our nation's first fresh food tax and the insanity of this that this government is going to tax Australian farmers so that their foreign competitors can import their product into this country and we pay for the biosecurity risk that they pose.
"Australian farmers are going to pay for their competitors to bring their product into this country,"Mr Littleproud said.
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