Community & Business
28 September, 2022
Fears as Coen facility faces closure by State Government
QUEENSLAND’S only international border, between Cape York and the Torres Strait, will be exposed to potentially “catastrophic” risk if the State Government proceeds with any plans to shut down its Coen biosecurity centre, according to Katter’s Australian Party Leader Robbie Katter.
Speaking in response to reports published this week by the Cape York Weekly about the mooted closure, Mr Katter said he joined Cape-based growers and graziers who were deeply alarmed by the news.
“The news of a threat to the future of the Cape York Biosecurity Centre should have come on April 1st, because surely it can only be a joke,” Mr Katter said.
“We are facing unprecedented, heightened biosecurity risk at present with the spread of both Foot and Mouth and Lumpy Skin diseases spreading across south-east Asia, and still trying to cope with the shameful legacy that has been produced by under-investment in Biosecurity Queensland over many years.
“In August, we revealed the extent of the decline in a local presence of officers across the State, with 30 full-time equivalent biosecurity roles having been lost from regional Queensland in the last 10 years.”
During this year’s Budget Estimates, Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Mark Furner admitted that in 2013 Biosecurity Queensland boasted 240 full-time staff based outside of the south-east corner.
By 2022, that number had dropped to 199 and there also remains 11 unfilled but budgeted vacancies across the regions.
Mr Katter said the Palaszczuk Government needed to immediately commit to keeping the Cape York Biosecurity Centre open and operational.
“I am calling on Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Mark Furner to immediate schedule a roundtable meeting to be held in the Cape to discuss with locals the future of the centre, with a view to expanding it not closing it down,” he said.
“The key to properly managing the State’s environment and safe-guarding against biosecurity threats is ongoing investment and preparation over a period of time, and any re-duction in the status quo would fly in the face of common sense.”
The Cape York Biosecurity Centre is located 22km from Coen in Far North Queensland.
It was first opened in 1999 under the name of the “Coen Information and Inspection Centre”, and was part of a $3.1 million “Northwatch” program investment designed to strengthen Queensland’s biosecurity surveillance capabilities.
“By providing greater early detection for plant and animal pests and diseases, North-watch is improving our capability to respond to incursions in remote areas and giving greater confidence to our trading partners,” the then Minister for Primary Industries Henry Palaszczuk said at the time.
