Fed: Qld horse stud launches horse flu legal action

AAP General News (Australia)
08-11-2009
Fed: Qld horse stud launches horse flu legal action

Eds: Adds comments from the federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke



By Jessica Marszalek

BRISBANE, Aug 11 AAP - A Queensland horse stud has launched a landmark legal action
against the federal government over the 2007 horse flu outbreak which the stud says caused
it to lose more than $3 million.

Equine influenza (EI) devastated the horse industry in NSW and Queensland in 2007 after
the disease escaped from an Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) facility
at Eastern Creek in Sydney's west.

Lawyers on behalf of Wattle Brae Stud, at Nobby on Queensland's Darling Downs, lodged
papers at the Supreme Court of Queensland on Tuesday seeking compensation for losses suffered
due to the outbreak.

The stud is seeking damages for negligence, interest on damages and for legal costs.

The papers say officials acting on behalf of the federal government allowed the EI
virus to escape the Eastern Creek quarantine station on the person, clothing or equipment
of someone who had not undergone adequate, or any, cleaning or disinfection.

"At the time of the escape of the virus, the defendant, the minister, the director
of quarantine, AQIS and Biosecurity had failed to take reasonable steps to establish a
system of quarantine to control or prevent the introduction of, establishment or spread
of equine influenza throughout Australia and thereby breached their duty of care to the
plaintiff," it states.

The horse stud's principal, Gary Turkington, said his stud was quarantined for three
months during the breeding season and all of his horses contracted the virus.

"We lost a lot of money and lost a lot of clients, and it's going to take a lot to
get back to where we were before," he told AAP.

"And the incompetence of the government, the way it was all run and just the blatant
incompetence of the quarantine station which we pay our taxes for, I think they should
be made liable."

He said many other breeders and horse businesses were just as angry as he was.

The landmark case, brought by Gold Coast law firm Attwood Marshall, will be eagerly
watched by hundreds of Australian businesses, Attwood Marshall Lawyers partner Jeff Garrett
said.

Mr Garrett said he expected to lodge more than 600 claims if the test case proved successful
and compensation could total more than $60 million.

He said Wattle Brae's losses resulted from the shutdown of the breeding industry, after
the government body AQIS released a horse carrying the disease from its quarantine facility.

"Losses were suffered at all levels of the horse industry - from barrier attendants
and farriers who have lost wages to breeders who have lost millions," Mr Garrett said
in a statement.

"We are hopeful the government will recognise the rights of the claimants and move
quickly in regard to compensation acknowledging the suffering and loss many people and
businesses have endured."

Agriculture Minister Tony Burke told AAP: "I've always said that compensation matters
based on the previous government's handling of equine influenza would be tested in the
courts."

"Now that an action has apparently been lodged, it is difficult for me to comment further."

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