The cost of importing and buying cars is expected to rise as Australia’s biosecurity measures are bolstered amid increasing threats.
Exotic pests like snails and stinkbugs found on the cars pose a biosecurity risk to the nation and the government said the $600 million spent on protecting the environment isn’t enough to combat a recent influx.
This means the government is poised to charge those importing things like cars new fees.
Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said the new fee could also impact imports like farming machinery, industrial items or even fridges.
“There’s a rising proportion of those imports that do contain soil and other contaminated material that contains diseases,” Watt told 9News.
“That could be everything from bugs to weeds to snails in some cases and these are things that aren’t already in Australia.”
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The charges could go up by an extra $5 per imported item.
Over 235,000 cars were imported through the Port of Brisbane last year, with only 8100 found to be contaminated.
Since January this year, 75,800 cars have moved through the Port, with 8000 of them already being contaminated.
A shipping backlog from the COVID-19 pandemic also means imports are stuck in their country of origin for longer, allowing the bugs and other contaminants to seize.
imports are sitting in the country they are coming from for longer, attracting bugs and other contaminants.
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