$300m of agricultural machinery stuck in Melbourne Port waiting biosec clearance

Senator Slade Brockman grilled department staff about the backlog, after he was contacted by a farmer in Western Australia who ordered a "brand new machine, straight out of the factory" 12 months ago.

"It got to Australia in January or February, and he was hopeful he would get it in time for seeding," Senator Brockman said.

"Inspectors came out three times and twice couldn't complete inspection because of the rain. It's taken so long he's missed seeding now."

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Senator Brockman said the tractor was just one one more than $300-million worth of agricultural and forestry machinery "sitting in a facility, wrapped up in plastic" waiting for biosecurity clearance.

"The sheer quantum of agricultural machinery sitting on port for that length of time is a huge loss of production and capability, it's a huge dead-weight loss for the businesses importing that equipment," Senator Brockman said.

Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries secretary Andrew Metcalfe said biosecurity officers were dealing with unprecedented levels of contamination on vehicles arriving in Australia.

"Most public attention and information has been on cars, but it's been machinery in general," Mr Metcalfe

"Although a lot of those cars and machinery are brand new, a lot of them have been put in contaminated places awaiting shipping.

"We've seen significant levels of biosecurity threats - pests, weeds, snails, bugs - associated with that."

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Mr Metcalfe said the department's recent funding shortfall was a significant factor in the biosecurity bottleneck. DAFF was operating at a $60m deficit due to recovering insufficient funds for the biosecurity services provided to importers.

Department officials said the ongoing biosecurity funding announced in Labor's budget will ease the backlog.

"We all know the consequences should pests or diseases get into the country so we're therefore cautious, so I don't apologise for that," Mr Metcalf said.

"Particularly agricultural equipment going to a rural area, it could cause billions of dollars in damage."