A person trying to enter Australia with six kilograms of meat in his baggage has had his visa cancelled and fined $2,700, with politicians saying “huge injury” might have been finished to the nation’s farmers.
Some 3.1kgs of duck, 1.4 kg of beef rendang, greater than 500 grams of frozen beef and almost 900 grams of hen have been found within the man’s luggage throughout an inspection by Australian biosecurity officers at Perth Airport final week.
The person had declared on his incoming passenger card that he was not bringing any meat, poultry, or different meals into Australia.
Australian Border Pressure officers cancelled the person’s visa following the invention, Minister for Residence Affairs Clare O’Neil mentioned.
He was additionally fined $2,664 and has since been deported.
Final month, the federal authorities launched harsher penalties banning individuals from bringing meat into Australia from international locations coping with extremely contagious foot and mouth illness — which poses a serious danger to Australia’s agricultural trade.
“It is a very critical breach, and this traveller has been hit with the hardest penalties at our disposal,” Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Murray Watt mentioned.
“The actions of Biosecurity Officers and ABF on the border have as soon as once more protected the Australian neighborhood and our agricultural sector from dangerous biosecurity dangers which have the potential to do huge injury.”
The sorts of meat within the man’s baggage posed a danger of carrying foot and mouth illness danger and African swine fever.
“Strictly implementing our borders ensures a robust biosecurity system to guard our worldwide commerce status as a number one provider of secure, wholesome, high-quality meals.”
Any meals permitted inside Australia can be returned to travellers, he added.
“For this reason laws is in place to cancel the visa of any traveller who commits a major biosecurity breach or repeatedly contravenes biosecurity legal guidelines,” Ms O’Neil added.
Travellers who’ve their visas cancelled are deported from Australia on the primary out there flight.