THE Queensland government is rolling the dice and gambling with the nation’s economy when it makes cuts to facilities like the Cape York Biosecurity Centre.
While the closure might not be a big deal for locals, it will be if the price of our fruit and vegies goes through the roof, or our beef gets taken off the shelves.
While those are the impacts at the severe end of the scale, it’s not an impossible outcome.
Biosecurity is a national issue and impacts all Australians.
If anything, the Queensland government should be ramping up measures in the Cape and Torres Strait, not making cuts.
Where has Member for Cook Cynthia Lui been on this topic? The silence is deafening.
While the centre wasn’t open 24/7, it provided both a physical reminder about biosecurity, and provided a bottleneck to monitor traffic in the case of an outbreak.
At the end of the month, that will be taken away.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and no one can predict the future, but no one can say that the government hasn’t been warned about the dangers of shutting this facility down.
We hope they aren’t made to look foolish – or culpable.
