FEDERAL Agriculture Minister Tony Burke didn’t need to change tack on beef imports from BSE-affected countries, Lee McNicholl believes, but now he has, the Central Queensland vet and beef producer welcomes a more rigorous risk analysis.
“It’s the ultimate way to clear the air and dispel some of the voodoo scaremongering that certain sectors of the beef industry have been flogging,” said Mr McNicholl.
“I can only hope that after every aspect of the debate has been examined, that we accept the science. If that’s where we end up, I don’t think anything has been lost.”
Mr McNicholl had one of the few dissenting voices at the Armidale Beef Industry Forum, where he tackled senators Bill Heffernan and Barnaby Joyce over “scaremongering” on BSE, and offered to put Senator Heffernan's views in his “porky pie bin”.
“Those people who want ‘zero risk’ on BSE: are they happy with the fact that we import a couple of thousand tonnes of beef from New Zealand, which imports beef from the United States?” Mr McNicholl said.
“A lot of this scaremongering is based on ill-informed opinion. Hopefully some sound science will put it to bed.”
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