The Federal Government may be sued for hundreds of millions of dollars over last year's horse-flu outbreak after a scathing assessment of Australia's quarantine and biosecurity systems.
Agriculture Minister Tony Burke yesterday issued former High Court judge Ian Callinan's report on his inquiry into the release of equine influenza that cost the racing industry an estimated $1billion last year.
More than 76,000 horses on 10,000 properties were infected by the virus, which shut down the racing and equestrian industries in NSW and Queensland for three months, and in the ACT for a shorter period.
Mr Burke said the Government was demanding cultural change in the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, and he had accepted the resignation of Stephen Hunter as its chief executive. Mr Hunter, a deputy secretary, will remain within the department.
More heads could roll. The Government has passed the report on to Public Service Commissioner Lynelle Briggs to determine whether further disciplinary action is required.
The report made no findings on legal liability, and Mr Burke said it was up to the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide whether any criminal charges could be laid.
Mr Callinan said he could not be certain how the virus escaped but it would almost certainly not have happened if "fundamental biosecurity measures" had been implemented.
"That such measures were not being implemented was a consequence of a number of acts of omission on the part of various employees and officers of AQIS at different levels of that organisation and over a number of years," he said.
He said vets, grooms and farriers working at Eastern Creek Quarantine Station shared responsibility because their failure to decontaminate themselves and their equipment had contributed to the virus's escape in August.
The virus probably came into Australia from Japan with the horse Snitzel and was then transferred from the quarantine station to the general community via someone or his or her equipment that came in contact with the horse and left the station "without cleaning or disinfecting adequately or at all".
The station was understaffed and inadequately funded. He said "inertia, inefficiency, lack of diligence, incompetence and distraction by unproductive bureaucratic process" played a part in the lack of reviews of biosecurity at the station and at Sydney Airport.
The Government has accepted all 38 of Mr Callinan's recom-mendations and appointed former public service chief Peter Shergold to oversee their implementation.
Asked about compensation, Mr Burke said he was expecting legal action.
"In advance of me receiving the report, one prominent racing identity said to me, 'You know, Tony, it doesn't matter what is in the report: we're punters and we reckon this is a good bet.'
"So I have no doubt this will be tested in the courts and a determination about liability and quantum will be appropriately resolved there," he said.
A partner in the Gold Coast firm Attwood Marshall Lawyers, Jeff Garrett, confirmed that a class action was "imminent".
His firm had received more than 350 inquiries from potential claimants living in 164 towns and cities across the country, "with the exception of the Northern Territory, and believe we will receive hundreds more as a result of the Callinan report and that damages claimed will extend to hundreds of millions of dollars".
Former Minister Peter McGauran declined to comment.
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