I spoke with a customs officer earlier today about this topic & the boat people. His defence was "well, it's a big coastline & we're playing a cat & mouse Game but it's a great job. We get to fly around in helicopters all over the place & the pay is great. It's a great job". When I said but what about the boats that get past undetected, he just shrugged his shoulders & replied "I like this Job". I didn't detect any concern in his attitude.

Very true Banjo,sadly it has always been that way under all forms of government.
Smugglers have recruited customs agents and wharfs for century's.
Police state and federal sit in prison today.
While others own coastal pubs bought with the bribes.
But in the thought of fixing first what we can I am looking at customs searching individuals on arrival at airports of by ship.
Wrapped clearly to hide, very dangerous food stuff and plant material, guns and weapons are being found.
The fine is awful!
It is crime that not just threatens but will, one day bring part of our industry to its knees.
But worse how much gets past them.
My guess is we stop far less than gets through, if prison or a big fine was the result?
We would see far less surely.

Indi,
Yes, that would be the attitude of some customs officers. I have seen the same in councils noxious weeds officers and Ludwig gave a good example at a professional level.

Belly, you are right penalties need to be drasticly increased, It is not as though travelers are not informed. That is the actual front line and shows the world that we are serious about imports.

Makes one wonder what the various Ministers for Customs have been doing for decades. They are pretty lax when it comes to our economy and the livelyhood of many Australians.

Belly, I perceive a few problems with harsher penalties.

They have got to have a significant effect in reducing the risk of detrimental organisms reaching this country or getting into agricultural areas or natural environments where they could do great damage.

I can’t see that big penalties would help very much, as no one wants these things to become pests, except perhaps the very rare person with devious intent…. and anyone with that sort of intent would hide whatever it is that they are trying to spread and would presumably be able to do it easily.

Harsh penalties have got to only be applied to those with ill-intent or serious negligence.

We don’t want people who inadvertently do the wrong thing to be harshly whacked for it. For example, there are signs at some state borders and when entering some agricultural areas saying that you cannot take fruit beyond that point. But I have noticed that there are usually no warnings before you see the signs. So there is nothing to tell you that you shouldn’t have bought a whole lot of fruit at the supermarket the day before. Then you are very reluctant indeed to dump it all in a bin on the side of the road…. and the chances of you getting sought out are tiny!

continued

Penalties should be applicable to councils that don’t act on early-detection information or don’t put in a serious effort to eradicating significant weeds.


So if we are to have harsher penalties, they would need to be targeted at those who deliberately do seriously wrong stuff, and it would need to go hand in hand with a much-improved enforcement regime, so that people feel there is a high chance of being caught out, instead of a tiny chance.

General management would also need to be improved. We can’t have situations whereby you pass a little sign on the highway somewhere which says, ‘no banana material to be taken past this point’, with no prior warning, no or practically no enforcement and no idea whether that applies to only farmers transporting plants and crops or whether it also applies to Mr & Mrs grey nomad who may have bought a couple of narnies at a shop in the last town.... and might be hit with a huge fine if they get caught!

In other words; harsher penalties alone are not the answer.

No they are not Ludwig.
However they have to be a start.
Mum wanting a cutting from the old country could introduce just about any thing.
And as Banjo said,it is not as if they did not know.
Recently the introduction of a horse virus stopped racing and horse movements.
It turned out a vet had been at fault but cost millions.