That's the message one Liberal senator wants to send as Australia stares down a killer pig disease and a stink bug that decimates crops.

"It's not just because we don't want to wake up in the middle of the night with a swarm of yellow crazy ants deciding to nest on our face and temporarily blind us," Queenslander James McGrath told parliament on Tuesday.

"It is because of the importance of the agriculture industry to Australia."

Legislation passed federal parliament on Tuesday making minor tweaks to biosecurity laws which allow more computerised decision-making.

The government is trying to streamline biosecurity arrangements as the country tries to fend off threats from the devastating African swine fever and the brown marmorated stink bug.

Labor supported the bill, but senator Glenn Sterle criticised the coalition for shelving a tax on imports designed to fund biosecurity measures.

"The Morrison government cannot use this bill as an excuse to not properly fund Australia's biosecurity system," he said.

"The government has failed to even introduce its own biosecurity levy which it announced in the 2018 budget."

Australian Associated Press