Farmers who grow grain could pay 60 per cent of the government’s proposed new biosecurity protection levy, according to Grain Producers Australia.
GPA chairman Barry Large said in a submission to a levy consultation process that the total proposed levies would have amounted to $284.6 million last year, or 10 per cent of the 2022-23 national crop value of $28.4 billion.
He said that amount would represent more than 60 per cent of the funding to be raised by the 10 per cent across all agricultural sectors.
The government announced a “shared” and sustainable biosecurity funding model in the May budget, with taxpayers, importers and farmers to contribute to running the system.
The consultation feedback period closed on October 13. The Biosecurity Protection Levy for farmers will come into effect from July 1 next year.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said the cost recovery levy on importers that came into operation on July 1 this year had already reaped $97.4 million up to September 30.