At least 31 Agriculture Victoria staff working on biosecurity, weed and pest control will lose their jobs by year’s end, and the Plant Production Sciences Branch, home to researchers specialising in agronomy, genetics and allied fields, has been made redundant.
These roles underpin on-farm biosecurity advice, surveillance and rapid response capacity during outbreaks. Industry warns lost capability will be costly and slow to restore.
State MP for Gippsland East, Tim Bull, said the cuts will hurt regional communities and are yet another symptom of a government stripping back services that benefit the bush to service debt racked up on costly city-based projects.
“This is the latest round of cutbacks on top of fisheries officers, Parks Victoria and Department of Energy Environment and Climate Action positions and all because we have a government with debt heading to $192 billion, with interest repayments alone of $28 million a day,” he said.
“I don’t oppose a leaner public service, but savings should come from the endless army of spin doctors the Labor Government employs, not from front-line services that directly support our communities.
“And don’t forget, this is the same government that said earlier this year it would not cut any front-line staff.”
According to a Weekly Times report last week, information sent to staff says the redundancies are part of “a strategic shift towards strengthening research and innovation,” but will involve “some reduction and realignment… reducing science capability in some areas”.
The memo states Agriculture Victoria’s Plant Production Sciences Branch will be “dissolved”, with a “scale back of science capabilities in crop agronomy, hydrogeology, plant functional genomics and spatial data sciences”.
Seventeen scientists’ roles are listed as “proposed no longer required”, while six new positions will be created as part of the overhaul.
Opposition agriculture spokeswoman, Emma Kealy, said the harsh reality is the Premier’s latest cuts are targeting Victoria’s outstanding team of agricultural research scientists.
The Agriculture Victoria staff reductions follow a steep slump in the number of properties inspected for invasive pests and weeds – from 4989 in 2012–13 to just 1440 in 2024–25.
Mr Bull said this latest round will mean even worse outcomes.
“They are basically surrendering the fight against invasive weeds. If they were going to cut anything, it should be the very expensive brumby-culling program, which many in our community oppose,” he said.
“I have not yet had confirmation on whether that is continuing.”
VFF CONCERNED
The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) is concerned the proposed staff reductions could leave Victoria’s $20 billion dollar
agriculture industry vulnerable to the risks posed by devastating pests and biosecurity threats.
VFF president Brett Hosking said the future of key roles involving biosecurity, emergency response, invasive-species management was under threat and the government must not shirk at its responsibility to protect the industry.
“Victorian agriculture is a world class, $20 billion dollar industry that indirectly employs more than 150,000 people. These proposed cuts have the potential to put all of that at risk if our biosecurity safety net is not maintained as it should be,” he said.
“Any reduction in staff and services would be a backward step for Victorian agriculture, particularly in areas safeguarding the sector against pests and diseases.
“Now is a critical time, given we have increasing threats and risks.
The government have been taking a risk-based approach to policy and regulations, but are heightening these risks by reducing staff and capacity.”
Mr Hosking added the flagged reduction in staff could leave the industry vulnerable should a large-scale biosecurity outbreak occur.
“You only need to remember the huge response that was required to contain and eradicate the recent avian influenza outbreak. It’s all hands on deck and you only get one chance to get the response right,” he said.
“I fear if the government follows through with this decision our industry and our regional communities could be left high and dry.
“We’re calling on the Victorian Government to rethink these cuts and protect our multi-billion dollar agricultural industry.”
