An Indonesian traveler was fined the equivalent of $1,874 last week after failing to declare two McDonald’s egg and beef sausage McMuffins and a ham croissant when flying from Bali, Indonesia, to Australia, officials announced Monday.
The passenger, who has not been publicly identified, was fined $2,664 Australian dollars for violating new biosecurity laws established by Australian authorities on people traveling from Indonesia to Australia after a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak spread to Bali, which the Australian government said poses a “significant risk” to its livestock industry.
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“This will be the most expensive Maccas meal this passenger ever has,” Murray Watt, Australia’s minister for agriculture, fisheries, and forestry, said in a press release.“This fine is twice the cost of an airfare to Bali, but I have no sympathy for people who choose to disobey Australia’s strict biosecurity measures, and recent detections show you will be caught.”
The discovery was made at the Darwin International Airport in the country’s Northern Territory when the airport’s new biosecurity detector dog named Zinta sniffed out the items. The food items were found to have not been properly marked as a possible biosecurity threat and will be checked for the foot-and-mouth disease before being destroyed, the press release said.
“Australia is FMD-free, and we want it to stay that way,” Watt added.
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Australian officials rolled out a $9.8 million biosecurity legislation, which covered sniffer dogs and sanitation foot mats at airports. If the disease spreads to Australia, experts estimate it could pose a costly $80 billion economic problem, according to CNN.
Failing to secure biosecurity risks in violation of Australia’s laws could, in addition to fines, lead to travelers having temporary visas revoked and barred from entering the country, according to Australia’s government.
