Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House that the Biosecurity Act 2014 and proposed Regulations, which remove mandatory conditions overseen by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and introduce a self-assessment process for individual producers, and/or Government Policy should include additional specific measures to prevent and progressively reduce the infestation of cattle tick across the State. A systematic review completed for Meat and Livestock Australia and published as “Which diseases have the biggest impact on Australia's beef cattle industry?” by James Nason, 29 June 2015, found that cattle tick is the disease with the biggest economic impact on Australia's beef industry, at a total estimated cost of $161million per annum. 

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to direct that the Biosecurity Act 2014 and associated Regulation and/or Government Policy:

• support the continual expansion of the cattle tick free zone throughout Queensland;
• have rigorous safeguards for preventing tick incursion into the free zone, including supporting the ongoing existence of government-operated clearance facilities (including dips and inspection centres) located near the zone boundary, and ongoing mandatory inspections/treatments of potential carriers crossing into the free zone;
• require that the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries regularly obtain and publish data and maps (including prior to the commencement of the new legislation in 2016) to monitor the success/failure of the new cattle tick management framework in preventing the incursion of cattle ticks into tick-free areas, and reducing the spread of cattle ticks.