Biosecurity is about hard work and smart decisions

Despite the daily political debate about macroeconomic policy, the fundamentals of the Australian economy are strong when we look at many other countries around the world.

The Australian Trade and Investment Commission's (Austrade) 2022 Benchmark Report shows this country has enjoyed high employment growth, high vaccination rates through COVID, high levels of consumer savings, an abundance of natural resources and energy, a substantial trade surplus and a significant export surplus of high-quality, safe food.

Add in a second-to-none public health system, world's best practice education and research sectors and a very stable political system that all deliver a strong economy and community.

These strong fundaments also make Australia an attractive destination for the foreign capital we need to fund future economic growth, improve community services and lift our living standards.

Clearly this is not about good luck. It is about hard work and smart decisions.

As the saying goes "the harder I work, the luckier I get".

A story about the spread of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A (known as H5N1) bird flu strain broadcast by the ABC last week, makes the point.

This virus was first identified in 1996 and spread quickly after 2003.

All bird species are thought to be susceptible to bird flu, or Avian Influenza (AI).

Many wild birds and waterfowl carry the virus, but while infectious generally don't show signs of the disease.

This virus has run rampant through the Northern Hemisphere and has spread through Asia and South America.

In 2022, it presented in 37 European countries.

In that period, there were 2467 outbreaks in poultry and 48 million birds were culled in the affected establishments across Europe.

In the United States last year, about 60 million chickens were slaughtered to try to control the spread of the disease.

But AI is not in Australia or, as the ABC reported, in the Antarctic - the last two continents free of the virus.

Once this virus began to spread, Australia's biosecurity policy response was to set up a surveillance program to detect incursions of AI.

The National Avian Influenza Wild Bird Surveillance Program started collecting and screening samples from Australian wild birds for AI viruses and the data generated are used to monitor and understand AI in wild birds in this country.

Over the life of the 18-year program, thousands of Australian wild bird samples have been screened with no high pathogenicity AI viruses detected.

But targeted surveillance activities continue to result in evidence of a wide range of subtypes of AI viruses of low pathogenicity.

Australia also has in place a ban on chicken meat imports to protect our unique disease-free status.

Chicken meat makes a key contribution this country's food security.

On average we eat 49 kilograms of chicken meat per head per year.

Chicken meat accounts for nearly 50 per cent of the meat protein Australians consume and to service that demand, the industry produces more than 700 million birds annually.

Australia is lucky to have remained free of the highly destructive H5N1 virus for so long.

But in relation to biosecurity policy, the amended saying goes "the harder - and smarter - I work, the luckier I get".

Governments of all political persuasions have recognised the importance to Australia's economic health of a well-funded and robust biosecurity regime.

Australia has a globally competitive advantage due to our strong biosecurity giving us some of the world's cleanest food and fibre.

It important that commitment is reflected in the upcoming 23-24 Federal budget.