Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke

This follows intensive lobbying of the horse industry in general against the imposition of a retrospective levy and strong representations by the EFA in various forums. We thnk all members of the EFA that assisted in this successful lobbying effort.

Minister Burke has had an extremely open ear to EFA concerns as he proved in supporting our additonal Olympic funding recently ($1.5 million). This is another example of his and his department's willingness to listen, something for which we congratulate them.

The EFA has always maintained that while there may be a case for a levy mechanism to contribute to the cost of containing future outbreaks, it was clear that the August 2007 outbreak was due to a serious breakdown of quarantine systems controlled by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) and that, therefore, horse owners should not have to shoulder the costs of containment and eradication of the virus on that occasion. The horse sector already had to wear the huge consequential costs of the outbreak, although the Federal Government had provided some assistance measures to help many of those affected by the outbreak. Our thanks to the Federal Government!

The Minister's statement