Of course there will always be a future for young people in agriculture. Will it provide the same fulfilling lifestyle as for those that choose to leave? On average probably not. In all walks of life there are successes and failures and all shades in between but the harder you work the luckier you'll get.

does anyone know how much the horse levy will be and who will have to pay it?

This is a set up from the start when people were asked to register their horses. All the more for the dog food industry and vote of no confidence for the government.

We pay a levy through the rural lands protection board when we have no cattle or sheep so why isn't there a levy through them to help with the cost? If the horse industry has to pay for their horses then why do we have to also pay for beef and sheep industry and their diseases as well? a bit unfair and maybe the Rural lands protection fees should be revisited to make these levies fair and just.

The opposition has got it in one!

OBVIOUSLY THE OPINIONS OF SO MANY AUSTRALIANS (HORSE OWNERS) ANIMAL LOVERS, HAVE NO VOICE IN THIS MATTER. AS WE ALL KNOW THE AUSTRALIAN QUARANTINE SERVICE LET THIS DISEASE IN TO THE COUNTRY IN THE FIRST PLACE. AS WE LIVE ON A ISLAND, AND HORSES DONT SWIM TO THE MAINLAND, WHY AS AUSSIES ARE WE BEING CHARGED FOR A NATIONAL SECURITY BREACH.

RLPB staff played a pivotal and critical role in the eradication of horse flu at great expense to the organisation as well as NSW DPI. Most horses are a luxury so this is just another luxury tax. Sheep & beef maintain our landscape locking up carbon in the process and help feed and clothe us. Everyone benefits whether they eat meat or wear wool or not. They should contribute to the support of these industries. Many of our travelling stock reserves have been described as pristine remnants of grassy box land vegetation and they owe this state to the grazing livestock and board management. In the USA many can no longer afford the luxury of a horse and they are being sent to Mexico to be slaughtered. Maybe they could provide a food source as well as pleasure here if sheep and cattle populations decline further.

Forget the sentimentality of animal lovers or the guff on locking up carbon, it's emotional and has no place in an economic debate. Racing and competition horses are an industry like sheep and beef not some warm feel good soft fuzzy pet establishment.

If an industry imports or transports a commodity (horses) to or from destinations which pose a risk to that industry and its subsidiaries then the industry should foot the bill to better manage its QA and quarantine practices.

AQIS did slip up but however good they are there is no 100% security. The racehorse industry insists on the risky traffic in horses: some stallions would have more frequent-flyer points than a federal politician. Import semen for breeding, and the risk drops a magnitude.

So what other industries pay a disease levy? As a cattle producer I don’t. Do we pay for Dogs or Pigs? The majority of these live in the wild and cannot be taxed. Most of the rest are not on any taxable list. The whole concept is a Canberra bureaucrat's dream!