Australia will spend an extra $14 million bolstering its defence against a disease that threatens to wipe out the country's farm and tourism sectors.
The latest federal funding includes $5 million for a technical support package for Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea to manage livestock disease and $9 million to be spent at Australia's borders, providing 18 new biosecurity officers at airports and mail centres.
A coordinator for disease control in northern Australia will also be established.
Australia — like Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea — is free from the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) which affects cattle, goats, sheep and pigs, but an outbreak that spread to Bali earlier this month has Australian authorities on high alert.
It is estimated a widespread FMD outbreak in Australia could cost $80 billion over a decade.
Some parts of the agriculture community have expressed concerns about whether Australia's airports are adequately staffed or equipped to detect or prevent FMD entering the country.
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said the ramped-up funding would also help Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea deal with an outbreak of lumpy skin disease (LSD) which affects cattle.
He again ruled out Bali travel bans and said the "highest risk" came from imported and posted animal products.
"For instance, if someone were to bring in a piece of salami or some other processed meat that happened to have traces of foot and mouth disease in it, if someone had some of the salami and chucked the rest in their food scraps for their animals, that potentially takes it into the animal feeding cycle," Mr Watt said.
"That's a very high risk."
Mr Watt announced the latest biosecurity funding on his return from meetings in Jakarta, where he committed $1.5 million to help the Indonesian government stop the spread of FMD.
The funding which makes up a portion of today's announcement was expected to provide at least one million FMD vaccines and $500,000 for Meat and Livestock Australia to work with Indonesian feedlots.
Speaking from Sydney's international airport, Mr Watt called on travellers to take personal responsibility for keeping the livestock disease out of the country.
"We need the travelling public to take this seriously," Mr Watt said.
The government has already announced more screening of passengers and luggage arriving from Indonesia.
New role for northern Australia disease coordinator
A new northern Australia disease coordinator will be appointed to raise community awareness and improve biosecurity management.
The Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association and the NT's Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade had urged the federal government to create a designated "coordination network" for the north.
Department spokesman Luke Bowen told the ABC there was a critical need for more awareness of how to prevent FMD, particularly among people living and working in remote areas.
"So, we've really wanted to get arms and legs on the ground because we're talking about vast distances and relatively small populations that are dispersed.”
"We're hoping this will be about providing information and communication with people, about skilling everyone up and how to improve biosecurity on farms and train people to respond to and prepare for an emergency."
Australia's chief vet has estimated there's an 11 per cent chance of FMD being detected in Australia within the next five years.
