The good news: Tony Burke has just announced that due to public concern, there will be a 2 year delay on allowing the importation of beef from countries where BSE (Mad Cow) cases have been recorded. (Clearly, the general public are brighter than those who thought this was a good idea.)
The bad news: the delay is so a ‘risk assessment’ can be completed (presumably they mean an assessment of the risk to the health of the Australian public & to livestock, or maybe it’s to assess the likely health of the Federal Labor government, if they allow this idiocy to go ahead?). Firstly, what a waste of money (yet another report); and secondly- any risk is too large a risk. Any time human beings, politics and large sums of money are combined, the risks are far greater than would otherwise be the case.
Save the cash Tony, and declare this stupid idea a dead dog.
Tags: Australian quarantine and biosecurity, Conservation and the environment