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Health minister confirms government reviewing ban on US beef imports

The health minister, Mark Butler, has confirmed the Albanese government is reviewing a ban on imports of American beef into Australia.

This is US beef that's raised in Canada or Mexico, not cattle that are raised in the US itself, but then brought into America, slaughtered there and then proposed for exports.

But this will be a decision taken on its merits, not for convenience, not to get a deal. We'll be taking a decision in the national interest in this area, as your viewers would expect us to.

This isn't about protecting an industry's prosperity, it's about protecting an industry's integrity. So if you are tweaking biosecurity laws by watering them down, that's something that I think that we would be very concerned about.