THE Victorian Government has defended its ability to handle a major biosecurity threat following a report from the Auditor-General.
The report found the state may not have the capacity to sustain a response to a major or prolonged livestock disease outbreak.
The weakness was exposed by last year's equine influenza (EI) emergency affecting NSW and Queensland.
Victorian Agriculture Minister Joe Helper said the report showed Victoria led the rest of Australia in identifying and managing biosecurity risks for the livestock industry.
Mr Helper said the report praise the way the Department of Primary Industries stopped EI from entering the state.
However, he acknowledged that the Auditor-General found that DPI faces significant challenges in biosecurity risk management in the future.
“We agree with this finding, which is why DPI is currently leading the development of a Whole-of-Government Biosecurity Strategy for Victoria," Mr Helper said.
“This new strategy will ensure the state is even better prepared to manage and respond to future biosecurity threats and address risks that may arise from climate change and increasing global travel and trade.”
The Auditor-General Des Pearson said even though the Victorian Department of Primary Industries (DPI) stopped the disease from spreading to Victoria, their resources ran thin.
"The major issue identified in the EI outbreak was that resources were considerably stretched," Mr Pearson said in the report, tabled today in state parliament.
"This raises concern about DPI's capacity and capability to sustain their response in a prolonged or large outbreak.
"National simulation exercises have also highlighted that a major emergency will quickly exhaust the pool of trained staff."
The horse flu outbreak was the DPI's biggest ever emergency response.
During the emergency, 20 staff were sent to NSW and Queensland to help contain the outbreak under state resource-sharing agreements.
But the arrangement was flawed when it came to responding to cross-border biosecurity threats, the report said.
"DPI had limited capacity to provide additional staff to other states given the need to protect Victoria from disease, whilst other states combating the outbreak were not able to supply additional staff to Victoria."
Mr Pearson said the DPI was addressing capacity constraints by recruiting internal staff to take on emergency response roles and funding 40 training places.
He recommended the department develop a strategy to tackle the problem as a matter of urgency.
Overall, the report found Victoria was leading other jurisdictions in biosecurity risk management.
Mr Pearson found the department's planning and risk management systems for controlling livestock diseases were well developed.
The responses to a 2007 anthrax outbreak and the horse flu epidemic were successful, despite exposing some shortcomings.
However Mr Pearson said awareness of the biosecurity threat was inadequate in some industries and recommended greater tracing of livestock and surveillance to promote early detection of disease.
He also urged the department to improve its forward planning, saying climate change and growing trade and travel had increased the risk of exotic diseases infiltrating Australia, with potentially devastating consequences.
AAP
