RECENT suggestions of WA Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan downplaying the threat of foot and mouth disease (FMD) to the State's agricultural industry were misguided.
That's according to Labor Agricultural Region MLC Darren West who defended Ms MacTiernan at a WAFarmers' meeting in Kulin on Monday.
This is on the back of industry stakeholders calling for her resignation following recent comments about food and milk prices going down should FMD enter Australia.
She has since apologised for those comments, which had been labeled as insensitive by some industry stakeholders.
"I've seen how hard she works, I know her passion, the clout that she has in cabinet, the way she goes about things and, as you can see by the staff at DPIRD, this is being taken very seriously," Mr West said.
"There isn't a political slant to this - this is a real threat to our industry, we all know the importance of it and we're all taking it seriously."
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Highlighting that it was the Federal government's responsibility to prevent the disease's entry into Australia, Mr West said the State government was prepared for its own role in the issue, which was to manage an FMD outbreak should it occur in WA.
With the risk of FMD rising from nine per cent to 11.6pc as a result of an outbreak of FMD in Bali, Mr West said more preventative measures put in place by the Federal government were proportional to the increased risk.
"We're working with our colleagues at the Federal government, providing them with the information they want from us to help keep it out," Mr West said.
"We got some information last week which was heartening, which is that the outbreak in Bali is under control."
With 70 countries without FMD declared free status, Mr West said it was equally important not to overplay or sensationalise an outbreak of FMD in Australia.
"We've had people travelling to and from those (impacted) countries for 100 years and we've been able to keep the virus out of Australia," he said.
