February 12, 2025
The Federal Government has scrapped its much-maligned proposed Biosecurity Levy which had been labelled as a “fresh food tax” by the LNP.
In the 2023 Budget, the Federal Government allocated an extra $1 billion to improve biosecurity at Australia’s borders but it came with a sting.
The plan was that from July 2024, a levy would be introduced on producers equivalent to 10 per cent of their 2020-21 levy rates.
The idea was that farmers would contribute to the cost of funding Australia’s biosecurity system on a “user pays” basis as they were the ones who benefited from the system.
“Why would any Australian government tax their own farmers to pay for foreigners to bring their products into this country?” Nationals leader David Littleproud said at the time.
The Nationals and producer groups campaigned strongly against the levy, which until now had been held up in the Senate.
The Agriculture Biosecurity Protection Levies Bill was “Discharged from the Notice Paper” (ie. the Bill won’t proceed any further) in the Senate on Wednesday after a motion by Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie.
Mr Littleproud said the dropping of the legislation was a “huge cost-of-living win” for farmers and families.
“Labor’s fresh food tax would have hurt families at the checkout as well as 84 agricultural commodities which faced taxes to raise $150 million over three years to pay for the risks created by their competitors, which is those importing from overseas,” Mr Littleproud said.
“It was senseless when better alternatives were offered by The Nationals, such as an importer container levy which would charge importers, not our own farmers, to pay for biosecurity risks being created as produce comes into the country.”
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