More cameras for border cattle tick surveillance
Posted
Video surveillance cameras will replace people in the fight to stop cattle ticks from entering New South Wales from Queensland.
Twenty-five Department of Primary Industries (DPI) staff who work at tick gates along the NSW-Queensland border have been offered voluntary redundancy or redeployment.
NSW Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald says a camera on the Pacific Highway at Tweed Heads has been successful in stopping the illegal transportation of livestock across the border.
The DPI's cattle tick program manager for the north coast, Peter McGregor, says six more cameras will now be installed at other crossing points.
"In the past if a vehicle went past with a transporting livestock then the inspectors would call on the police to follow up," he said.
"The pressures on police mean that we don't get the same level of support that we have had in the past and that we need to be able to follow up vehicles further down the track.
"That's where the registration details assist us greatly."
