Are our quarantine laws too weak?

[sam76]

I'm so sick of watching person after person CLEARLY abusing Australian quarantine laws.

People coming into this country bringing bags and bag of food (dried, raw..whatever) ticking the lega ldocument written in their own language stating they have no food to declare and then getting all fired up and nasty when Customs officers pull them up stating all sorts of ridiculous excuses.

Customs are as much as fault because they give too many people the benefit of the doubt and let them off with a warning for their garbage bag full of mushrooms etc...

And if they do get stung, they only get a measly $220 fine!!!

Don't these half-wits who clearly are trying to get their 'magical' food in under the radar realise the damage these thing can do to our country?

I for one want to see a fin in the thousands and refusal into Australia.

 

[cutz]

I'm so sick of watching person after person CLEARLY abusing Australian quarantine laws.

How has this been brought to your attention ?

Do you work for AQIS or are you watching Border Security on the telly ?

 

[sam76]

How has this been brought to your attention ?

Do you work for AQIS or are you watching Border Security on the telly.

I clearly have been watching border security, lol

My sister in law's brother works for AQIS and says its even worse the B-Security

I'm assuming it was you that voted no.

Why?

 

[roland]

Clearly a major problem, but delaying the inevitable.

 

[skc]

I'm so sick of watching person after person CLEARLY abusing Australian quarantine laws.

People coming into this country bringing bags and bag of food (dried, raw..whatever) ticking the lega ldocument written in their own language stating they have no food to declare and then getting all fired up and nasty when Customs officers pull them up stating all sorts of ridiculous excuses.

Customs are as much as fault because they give too many people the benefit of the doubt and let them off with a warning for their garbage bag full of mushrooms etc...

And if they do get stung, they only get a measly $220 fine!!!

Don't these half-wits who clearly are trying to get their 'magical' food in under the radar realise the damage these thing can do to our country?

I for one want to see a fin in the thousands and refusal into Australia.

To me most peoples may be geniunely unaware of the consequences of their actions, especially tourists or those who don't speak much English. $220 fine is not insignificant considering how cheap some of the food they try to sneak in are.

I travel a fair bit and I do the right thing and not sneak anything in. But for many items I really don't know what the fuss is about. And Australia is by far the most stringent borders I've passed from a quarantine point of view.

Perhaps a progressively higher fines for repeat offenders might be the way to go... $220 for first offence, $1000 for the next time and refusal to enter + $2500 on the third stike should deter most people.

 

[springhill]

It's the legal imports you should be more concerned about.

NZ pome fruit about to be allowed in Oz infested with fire blight, see what that does to an orchard full of pears.

Chinese vegies soaked with sewerage or chemicals that were banned here 10 years ago. How many containers get checked? Maybe 2 in 1000 thanks to AQIS cutbacks.

Brown Rot brought over to WA by imported Eastern States cherries & apricots.

The list goes on.....

All in the name of 'Free Trade'.

 

[noirua]

Every country has this problem with similar laws to Australia and the same small percentage of cargoes and passengers checked. It would be a massive job to check everything and that could require everyone to wait in the planes for several hours.
They check personal baggage and cargoes more in Canada, coming in that is - going out is a different matter. Because they keep on top of the situation as they do with car parking and traffic offences. I doubt most Aussies would keep to the rules themselves though.

Easiest way is to destroy everyones luggage if it has food in it. Charge them $2,000 for the offence. Confiscate their passport until they pay.
Somehow I think the number of visitors would drop and the Government wouldn't get back in again.