Politicians have been condemned for ignoring the warnings of department officials about playing "dangerous" politics with foot and mouth disease in a fiery Senate debate.
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The Nationals, along with One Nation, accused Agriculture Minister Murray Watt of misleading the Senate when answering questions about sanitised foot mats at airports and FMD vaccines.
But in return they were chastised for fuelling hysteria, which they were asked not to do by department officials at an FMD briefing for politicians.
Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said it was "sad seeing [the Coalition and One Nation] play politics" and it was "dangerous to continue down this road".
"We were told by the department officials at the briefing that it is dangerous for you to play politics with this," Senator Whish-Wilson said.
"It is dangerous for the reputation of farmers you come in here and purport to represent... it's dangerous for the trade deals we're negotiating, for our reputation and our international image."
Senator Whish-Wilson said the government's FMD response had been referred to a parliamentary committee, where the appropriate scrutiny would be applied without the politics.
The Opposition has been attacking the government for its response to FMD, with many Nationals politicians calling for the border to Indonesia to be closed.
The agriculture sector has overwhelmingly rejected closing the border because of the devastating impacts it would have on trade and international relations.
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One-way trade with Indonesia is worth $8 billion a year. It's estimated a wide-spread FMD outbreak would cost Australia $80 billion over 10 years.
Mr Watt said it was disappointing the Opposition continued to play politics with FMD, despite repeated requests from the industry to "drop the politics".
"I know for a fact that the industry has contacted members of the Opposition, asking them to stop the politics, because of the damage it's doing to our international reputation," Mr Watt said.
"Yet the Opposition continues to do it for their own political gain. Not only is it irresponsible, it goes against the claims they're on the side of farmers, when every peak industry group has called for calm, and clear messaging that we are FMD free.
"It's incredibly hypocritical, given we never saw the Coalition demanding any of these things when they were in office, despite dozens of FMD outbreaks overseas, including in Indonesia."