Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has vowed to deliver a sustainably funded biosecurity system for Australia despite the passage of the government's Biosecurity Protection Levy being blocked by the Senate.
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Mr Watt said that the Coalition and Greens had consigned taxpayers to foot the bill for increased biosecurity funding "instead of an industry contribution".
He made the comments after crossbenchers in the Senate formally informed the government of their opposition to the controversial BPL prior to the legislation being tabled yesterday.
Mr Watt also told ACM Agri that it was a "shame" that the agriculture industry does not feel the need to contribute to government's sustainable biosecurity model.
"With importers, taxpayers and travellers now contributing over $750 million to protect our agriculture industry from biosecurity threats, it's a shame the industry doesn't see the need to contribute around five per cent of that," he said.
"The government remains committed to a sustainably funded biosecurity system - something the ag sector has called for, for years.
"We will continue to consider all options to ensure we maximise available funding for biosecurity through a broad-based funding model that includes contributions from risk creators, taxpayers and system beneficiaries.
"In saying 'no' to this reform, the opposition and Greens political party are again expecting Australian taxpayers to reach into their pockets to pay more, instead of an industry contribution."
The levy has attracted significant criticism from the agriculture sector, unhappy with the proposed funding model.
The crossbench opposition to the proposal would mean the government would not have the numbers to pass the bill to bring in the BPL.
The bill was due to be tabled once again on Thursday but the government decided to withdraw it.
Greens support was critical for the government's plans of getting the bill through the Senate.
With the coalition and Greens both against the levy, with 31 coalition senators and 11 Greens senators the ALP, even with full support from the rest of the crossbench, would only get to 34 votes, well short of the 42 against.
Greens agriculture spokesperson Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said his party supported bolstering biosecurity measures but not the proposed funding model.
"The Greens support significant and new biosecurity funding that ensures Australia has robust threat abatement measures in place to safeguard our communities, the environment and industry into the future - and we congratulate the agricultural minister for raising significant additional revenue from some key biosecurity risk creators," Senator Whish-Wilson said.
"But the Bill the government has brought parliament to specifically tax farmers in this regard is poor policy in both principle and design and should be rejected.
"The fact this new proposed levy has zero buy-in from the agricultural sector speaks for itself - consultation on it was rushed and inadequate."
