Labor resists calls to close border to Indonesia after foot-and-mouth viral fragments detected in SA

Agriculture minister Murray Watt says federal government confident new biosecurity measures enough to protect livestock industry

• Get our free news app, morning email briefing and daily news podcast

The federal government is resisting calls to close Australia's border to Indonesia over the foot-and-mouth disease threat, after more fragments of the potentially devastating livestock virus were detected in South Australia.

The agriculture minister, Murray Watt, said he was confident that new federal biosecurity measures would be sufficient to keep out foot-and-mouth disease, which could threaten Australia's entire meat industry, as farmers call on the government to not overreact.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning