Quarantine and Biosecurity Review

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Last updated: 16 Dec 2008

Quarantine and Biosecurity Review

After careful consideration, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry released the report of the independent Quarantine and Biosecurity Review Panel.

The minister also announced the Austalian Government's preliminary response, which agrees in principle with all 84 of the review's recommendations, subject to Budget processes.

The panel provided its report to the minister at the end of September 2008. The report is the culmination of a comprehensive, seven month review of Australia’s quarantine and biosecurity systems.

The review was undertaken by an independent panel of experts chaired by Mr Roger Beale AO, a Senior Associate with the Allen Consulting Group. The panel’s other members were Dr Jeff Fairbrother AM, Mr Andrew Inglis AM and Mr David Trebeck.

The review considered issues including:

  • animal and plant risk assessments
  • the targets for quarantine intervention
  • import and export inspections and certification
  • the mechanisms in place to respond to incursions
  • the roles of the Australian, state and territory governments, industry and the wider community, and their relationships with each other.

The review’s terms of reference also required the panel to make recommendations on the appropriateness, effectiveness and efficiency of:

  1. current arrangements to achieve Australia’s very low, but not zero, ‘Appropriate Level of Protection’
  2. public communication, consultation and research and review processes
  3. resourcing levels and systems and their alignment with risk in delivering requisite services
  4. governance and institutional arrangements to deliver biosecurity, quarantine and export certification services.

Previous assessments of Australia’s quarantine and biosecurity arrangements, such as an independent review in 1995 chaired by Professor Malcolm Nairn, were also part of the panel's considerations.