The deer industry in Australia will pay just $265 towards bio levy as farmers do it very hard

The deer farming industry is overwhelmingly composed of mainly mixed farmers chasing a side hustle. Picture supplied. The nation's niche deer farming for meat industry will be asked to contribute just 0.0005 per cent towards the government's new $51.8 million Biosecurity Protection Levy - or $265 per annum. After pointing to the paltry contribution, Senator Matt Canavan asked Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry officials appearing before a Senate inquiry into the levy whether an impact analysis had been performed before adding venison to the list. "We are going to pass legislation... to charge an entire industry $265. Have you done a cost-benefit study on whether that is a useful spend of our administration dollars here?" he said. But the new levy is just the latest of the industry's problems, according to Deer Industry Association of Australia president Andrew McKinnon, and only serves to remind farmers how little money is left in the game. For starters the industry ...