Are Horse-Flue & Foot and Mouth Disease Related?

These diseases may differ medically, but to AQIS and the Government they should be treated no differently.
We have hundreds of horses 'down' with this disasterous flu but still while Rome is burning Nero fiddles on. i.e. Minister McGauran has agreed to let foot and mouth disease at risk meat into Australia from the US.

Isn't this a classic case of letting the horse bolt and then trying to re-stable it?!

You'd reckon McGauran et al, including AQIS, would want to learn as quickly as possible and shore-up our defences to prevent this sort of thing happening again to our precious livestock. And you'd think they'd be even more vigilant when it comes to our massive meat livestock market. We are 2nd only to Brazil in beef exports but are allowing meat at risk of foot and mouth into Australia from the US and Brazil. It will be a sad day if (when?) some exotic disease devestates our meat industry because some poilticians wanted to "Go All The Way With LBJ"!
What do you think?
(Please post a comment below).

Farming Biosecurity Risk!

Australian Beef Association (ABA) chairman, Brad Bellinger, has stated that Australia's quarantine processes are "hopeless" and are placing Australians at risk.

“They can’t even adhere to Australia ’s own Trade Practises Act rules on Country of Origin Labelling". "They are still turning a blind eye to 'Product of USA' beef that is from Brazil ('a foot and mouth' country - ed.) -making a mockery of the rules".

Mr. Bellinger said, “Under the Canberra Free Trade mantra, Bio Security has adopted an ‘anything goes’ approach. "They have opened the pork industry to imports from disease-afflicted countries, despite legal rulings against it. "They have exposed the banana, apple and now the beef industry to the same risks". "Their handling of citrus canker outbreak in the citrus orchards in Emerald, Qld, was a total disgrace".

Mr Bellinger said, “We congratulate our sister organisation R-CALF in the United States on achieving Country of Origin Labelling legislation for beef."
“Canberra has lost the plot completely and we can only hope that the Shadow Minister lives up to his pledge, should he be elected”. (Mr Bellinger applauded the announcement by Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, Senator O’Brien that, if elected, he will hold an inquiry into Australia ’s quarantine administration).

Should meat from Foot and mouth countries be allowed into Australia? Should Country of origin labelling be stringently policed?

What do you think? (Click on 'Comment' below to leave your opinion).