INTHEBLACK August 2024 - Flipbook - Page 46
F E AT U R E
Above: Australia’s
controversial
proposed Biosecurity
Protection Levy has
been met with
criticism from farmers,
the Productivity
Commission and
other groups.
emergency response levies are collected
under the Emergency Plant Pest Response
Deed and the Emergency Animal Disease
Response Agreement.
Potentially adding to these will be the
proposed new Biosecurity Protection Levy
(BPL), first announced in the 2023 Federal
Budget, which the government estimates will
raise A$50 million annually from 2024–25.
The government’s premise behind
the BPL is that primary producers,
as significant beneficiaries of biosecurity,
should contribute more to maintaining
biosecurity protection at Australia’s borders.
The BPL has attracted significant
criticism, including from the National
Farmers Federation (NFF), the
Productivity Commission, the Australian
National University and the Office
of Impact Analysis.
“Australian farmers already spend millions
of dollars each year in existing levies that
already incorporate biosecurity spending
as well as through managing the pests and
diseases on-farm brought to our shores
by importers and travellers,” , says NFF
president David Jochinke.
“By paying another tax towards
biosecurity services, they are effectively
subsidising foreign competitors who
import food products into Australia.
“Along with it being at odds with
standard policy design and tax practice,
this levy simply is not fair,” Jochinke says.
AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT GENERAL
GOVERNMENT SECTOR (CASH) RECEIPTS ($M)
Levy
2021–2022 Final
budget outcome
2022–23 Final
budget outcome
2023–24
Estimates
2023–24 Mid-year
economic and
fiscal outlook
1454
1525
1620
1600
$A million
$A million
$A million
$A million
Major bank levy
626
READ
CPA Australia’s
2024–25
Australian Federal
Budget summary
46 INTHEBLACK August 2024
$A million
666
$A million
586
$A million
Agricultural levies
Source: Australian Government Budget Archive, Final Budget Outcome 2021–22, Final Budget Outcome 2022–23
and Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2023–24
598
$A million
