That is the view of Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce as he fights to keep quarantine matters from being absorbed into a proposed “super ministry”.

Speculation is rife Immigration Minister Scott Morrison wants to bring biosecurity under an expanded ministry comprising customs, border protection and immigration.

But Mr Joyce is adamant such a move would only increase the likelihood of diseases, such as foot and mouth, screw fly and rabies, entering Australia and wreaking havoc.

“If we start fiddling around with our borders and having the person who’s looking for bombs, drugs and knives also looking for biosecurity impediments, you’ll find they’ll pay immense attention to one and forget about the other altogether,” he said.

“A lot of the times people who are bringing in a biosecurity risk are unaware that they’ve got the risk. They don’t have criminal intent. It’s not like they’re trying to bring in drugs.”

Mr Joyce’s stance has attracted support from Parkes MP Mark Coulton, who said  there was “no advantage” in merging biosecurity  with border protection.

“Keeping biosecurity experts with the knowledge about best practice for biosecurity within the agriculture portfolio is essential,” he said.

“This is an area that the government takes extremely seriously because if there were to be a breach of our biosecurity arrangements, the impact could well be felt right throughout the supply chain and would severely affect our economy.”