CALLS are emerging for an appeal to be lodged over the lightness of the court sentence in a case where a woman convicted of illegally importing 62 tonnes of pork and other animal protein from Thailand, last week received only a non-custodial sentence and community service.

An avalanche of Beef Central readers have expressed outrage over the light nature of the District Court sentence, in this original story, and this follow-up where Australian Pork Ltd protested over the outcome.

The illegal importation, carried out on a massive scale, presented a clear threat to Australian livestock industries through Foot and Mouth Disease, African Swine Fever and other biosecurity risks, yet the offender avoided imprisonment, receiving only a 24-month Intensive Corrections Order to be served in the community. She also received 150 hours community service.

The detection was only made after a whistleblower alerted authorities about quantities of suspicious Thai meat being sold on the Sydney black market.

Biosecurity breach proves need for better protection

Cattle Australia has this morning issued a statement about the detection and the court ruling.

The maximum available sentence is ten years in jail and up to $1.6 million in fines.

Cattle Australia chief executive Dr Chris Parker said the incredible volume of contraband demanded a tougher sentence to send a clear signal to would-be smugglers of the extreme importance of biosecurity to Australia.

Dr Parker said the scale of the crime also suggested this was not a one-off incident and more stringent measures were needed from the Australian Government to enforce the law and prevent other criminals breaching our biosecurity defences.

“Australia’s cattle producers and the community expect more from the judiciary in enforcing the law for such serious breaches,” Dr Parker said.

“The case begs the questions of how on earth was she able to import such a high volume of contraband before being detected, and why such a small sentence was handed down.”

“Pork is a high-risk source of Foot and Mouth Disease, which would decimate our industry and wreak economic havoc on the nation if it ever enters Australia. In a worst-case scenario, an outbreak could cost the Australian economy $80 billion over ten years and cause significant disruptions to the food supply chain in Australia.”

The latest episode follows a similar case in 2023, in which 38 tonnes of illegal food imports were detected in Sydney.

There were 116 different food types found in that shipment, including high-risk produce including turtle meat, frog meat, pork, beef, geese, duck, raw prawns, soil and plants – any one of which could have been carrying a pest or disease devasting to Australia’s agricultural industries.

“The two cases demonstrate that food smugglers can get away with breaching our biosecurity laws too easily and for too long before being found out, and face too small a punishment,” Dr Parker said.

He said early detection and intervention were critical to protecting Australia’s unique ecology and our clean, green farming systems.

“The Australia Government must urgently increase its funding and resources for our biosecurity system, and in particular, increase frontline services to inspect, detect and destroy risk material as early as possible, as well as to find, investigate and prosecute offenders,” he said.

Funding is also needed for trials of new early detection technologies, such as vector technology to assess potentially disease carrying insect populations at high-traffic entry points.

“Prevention is the most cost-effective biosecurity investment you can make and in the long run it will be far cheaper than the cost of a cure,” Dr Parker said.

“And funding changes must not be a one-off response – the Commonwealth must put the biosecurity system on a sustainable funding model that will protect Australia both now and into the future. For some time, CA has been calling for user-pays charges on importers as a means to achieving this. It’s time the Government acted.”

• Emergency Animal Disease Watch Hotline on 1800 675 888