The devil’s in the detail of the federal budget’s announcement of a new 10 per cent Biosecurity Protection Levy – some would call it a tax – that’s set to be imposed on Australian grain producers.
Federal Agriculture Minister, Murray Watt, has proposed raising $47.5 million per year across all producers from the added 10 per cent levy, as part of a ‘sustainable’ funding model for biosecurity protections.
However, these funds will be raised off producers and re-directed into general revenue, for the federal agriculture department, which also received a $127 million allocation in the budget (from consolidated revenue) to cover recent financial losses.