Farmers back open border with Indonesia as foot and mouth fears grow

Australia's peak farming body has backed the federal government's decision to keep the border with Indonesia open, even as fears over our nearest neighbour's foot-and-mouth disease outbreak continue to grow.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles today ruled out the closure, even as security measures at airports ramp up.

Marles told Today this morning the federal government had put in place the country's biggest biosecurity program to meet the threat to Australia's agriculture sector.

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He said national farming bodies were not calling for the border to be closed.

"To close the border would have a very significant impact on our trade.

"What we've got in place now is the biggest biosecurity response that any government has ever done. That's what we are doing.

"We're doing it with more biosecurity officers and more work with Indonesia and countries on the front line."

EXPLAINED: What is foot and mouth disease and can humans get it?

National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson said farmers had welcomed the action from the federal government, and that closing the border would damage important export markets with Indonesia.

But she and Agriculture Minister Murray Watt both suggested the situation could change.

Watt noted that multiple countries around the world had FMD both now and in the past, and no border closures had been put in place.

Watt said he would continue to act on expert advice, and if the advice changed, he would follow it.

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Watt said security screenings at airports were stepping up, while a decision could be made as soon as today to give biosecurity officers at airports extra powers.

Currently, officers are only able to request that individual passengers take measures such as walking over sanitary footmats, or cleaning their footwear.

However, the creation of "biosecurity response zones" would see the officers empowered to direct entire planeloads of people to undergo such measures.

Simson said farmers would support every single passenger being thoroughly screened.

But, she conceded, "what is possible and what is not, is up to the government".

"The farmers don't want to take any risks at all," she said.

She said the larger risk was involved in people bringing in or posting meat products - legal or illegal.