AusBIOSEC
Continuous improvement in biosecurity is vitally important to maintaining Australia’s favourable health status which underpins our domestic and international trade, and also to meeting our international obligations. Our biosecurity system also protects our unique natural landscapes and native flora and fauna, including the ecosystem services they provide, and our quality of life.
In October 2005, a process was initiated by the Natural Resource Management and Primary Industries Standing Committees to enhance the Australian Biosecurity System for Primary Production and the Environment (AusBIOSEC). The scope of this work was for managing nationally significant pests and diseases of the terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments, along the entire biosecurity continuum. It also included commitments to improvements to the national biosecurity system.
The Independent Review of Australia’s Quarantine and Biosecurity Arrangements Report to the Australian Government ‘One Biosecurity: A working partnership’, chaired by Roger Beale AO, recommended its replacement by the National Agreement on Biosecurity.
The National Agreement on Biosecurity, which is currently being negotiated between the Australian and State and Territory governments, is a principle-level agreement, including national goals and objectives, key features and attributes of the national biosecurity system and the plan for implementation. It will also commit governments to work in partnership to improve key aspects of the national biosecurity system, which was formerly part of the AusBIOSEC work.
The AusBIOSEC work has also been progressing and has resulted in a draft intergovernmental agreement that focuses on establishing emergency response arrangements for nationally significant pests and diseases that affect the environment and social amenity, as well as the emergency response arrangements for marine pests. This intergovernmental agreement, once endorsed, will fill a significant gap in Australia’s biosecurity system, as identified by the Beale Review and will support and contribute to the meeting of the national goals and objectives of the National Agreement on Biosecurity.
The draft intergovernmental agreement and the National Agreement on Biosecurity will include cross-references to ensure the linkages are explicitly made.