Foot-and-mouth: Opposition lashes plan to draft hundreds of cops and DFES workers into contact tracing roles
Hundreds of police officers and DFES staff would be hauled out of their usual roles and assigned to contact tracing of livestock in the event of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in WA in a plan slammed by the shadow agriculture minister.
Nationals MP Colin de Grussa revealed details of the arrangements put in place by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development after receiving a briefing on Tuesday.
He said “around 750 people” would immediately be mobilised to uncover spread of the highly-contagious virus and lockdown farms or processing facilities impacted by the disease.
“Now those 750 people, a large proportion of that is apparently going to be taken from our emergency services — so from the Department of Fire and Emergency Services and WA Police,” Mr de Grussa said.
“We know those departments are already well and truly stretched in terms of having to drive ambulances and so on.
“They’re already under significant pressure. Police are facing an exodus of officers as well.
“How is the Government going to manage community safety and the expectations of the community if it’s going to pull (from) that resource and potentially create another problem in the community?”
Mr de Grussa said his understanding was “the majority” of the contact tracing team would be drawn from police and DFES - but that was disputed by Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan, who said most would be drawn from DPIRD.
“We may require some emergency services and police personnel to help with the response if we have to close the borders to interstate livestock and to enforce livestock quarantine zones,” Ms MacTiernan said.
“There is simply no other pathway for dealing with this.
“Under a nationally agreed plan a 72-hour livestock lockdown would likely be put into effect, to allow contact tracing to occur and affected properties to be quarantined.
“While we are doing everything we can to prevent the disease getting here, in the event of an outbreak, we will throw every resource at crushing the virus before it spreads.
“We want all hands on deck, which is why we have given a detailed briefing to the Opposition. We hope they can use this information for good.”
While praising the DPIRD for the intent of the outbreak management plan, Mr de Grussa questioned whether the manpower needed to be drawn from frontline responders.
“This needs to be a whole of government response, similar to what COVID was,” he said.
“Surely those resources could be pulled from other government agencies or elsewhere without putting pressure on our emergency services who are already struggling?”
Opposition Leader Mia Davies joined Mr De Grussa in labelling the DPIRD plan “concerning”.
“We’re seeing police leave the service in droves because of the dysfunction and pressures that are within that portfolio and this is going to put additional pressure on them,” she said.
“So the Government needs to have a whole of government approach and they need to be realistic and communicate how we’re going to stand those people up if the worst possible thing were to happen and we have an incursion of FMD.”
Mr de Grussa also renewed calls from Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan to be stripped of the portfolio, claiming while DPIRD was “working very hard to implement plans”, the Government’s communication of those measures had been woeful.
“An abject failure to communicate (the plan) coupled with the minister’s outlandish comments last Friday really means the industry have completely lost confidence in this minister,” he said.
Ms MacTiernan has apologised for claims last week that an FMD outbreak would not be catastrophic and could in fact result in cheaper milk and meat for West Australians.
Premier Mark McGowan subsequently agreed Ms MacTiernan “went a bit far and made a mistake” in her commentary but continues to back in the veteran minister.
Mr de Grussa said the apology was not sufficient and it was time Ms MacTiernan was “moved on”.
“We’re calling for the Premier to take action here and show some leadership,” he said.
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