Calls to slam the border shut with one of Australia's biggest trade partners amid an outbreak of foot and mouth disease have been branded "drastic" by a farming body.
Opposition MPs Barnaby Joyce and Karen Andrews said the government should move quickly to shut Australia's border to arrivals from Indonesia.
While the nation remains free of the livestock disease, it has been detected in popular tourist destination Bali.
The government must do whatever it takes to guarantee foot and mouth disease does not enter the nation, Ms Andrews said.
"Labor needs to be doing much more than it already is to prevent that disease coming into Australia," Ms Andrews told Sky News on Thursday.
"This is a race and Labor is barely out of the starting blocks."
But closing the borders would be a "very drastic step", Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano told AAP.
"We rely on this bilateral trade between the two countries, and I don't know how you would justify doing that to Indonesia when foot and mouth is endemic in other countries," she said.
"There would be an economic impact and we want to ensure we keep trade open.
"It's vital Australians understand what's at stake, and the need to be hyper-vigilant about what food products they bring back."
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt on Wednesday announced further biosecurity measures after viral fragments of foot and mouth disease and African swine fever were detected in pork products at a Melbourne retailer.
An undeclared beef product was also recently seized from a traveller at an Australian airport and later tested positive for disease fragments.
Senator Watt is urging travellers to take responsibility, clean their shoes and declare all meat products when arriving in Australia.
As an extra precaution, travellers from Indonesia should throw their shoes away before boarding a plane, Mr Joyce said.
"You might say that's outrageous," he told Melbourne radio 3AW.
"I tell you, what will be outrageous is when you go to pay for your shopping bill and instead of the big shop being $300 or $400, its six, seven or eight hundred dollars."
An immediate three-day standstill on livestock movements would be implemented if the disease were to reach Australia, Senator Watt said.
A compensation scheme for farmers would also be put in place.
But the minister said his focus was making sure an outbreak never reaches Australian shores.
"I feel very confident that Australia's world-leading biosecurity system stands us in very good stead to resist this outbreak arriving," he said.
Sanitation mats are being deployed at international airports for travellers from Indonesia to walk over in an effort to stop the disease entering Australia on their shoes.
Meanwhile, the development of a national, mandatory sheep and goat electronic identification system was agreed to by state and territory agriculture ministers at a meeting on Wednesday.
It would allow livestock to be individually traced in the event of an outbreak.
While some jurisdictions had initially resisted the idea, Senator Watt said he was pleased to be able to reach an agreement.
"We've got a system across the country for cattle, but we haven't got it in place for sheep at the moment," he told AAP.
"It's something that sheep producers have been calling for for a long period of time, because it's another really important biosecurity step."
How the tagging system will be funded and rolled out still needs to be decided, the minister said.
Australian Associated Press
