31 May 2016
Australia’s national biosecurity system. Is it fit for the future?
In late 2015, Australian, state and territory governments agreed that a formal review of Australia’s biosecurity arrangements, including the underpinning Intergovernmental Agreement on Biosecurity (IGAB), would be undertaken in 2016—the IGAB review.
The IGAB is an important component of the national biosecurity system. It establishes nationally agreed approaches among governments to prevent, prepare for, detect and mitigate biosecurity risks across the system and respond to, manage and recover from biosecurity incidents should they occur.
Led by an independent panel comprised of Dr Wendy Craik AM (Chair), Mr David Palmer and Dr Richard Sheldrake AM, the review will assess the capacity of the national biosecurity system to manage increased biosecurity risk in an increasingly complex global environment.
The panel would like stakeholders across Australia to have their say on the national biosecurity system and the IGAB. They want to know what works, what doesn’t, what could be done better and how to strengthen partnerships across the system. Your feedback will help identify where improvements can be made.
A discussion paper has been released to guide the review panel’s consultation, and help inform discussions on the review. The panel is calling for comments on the topics and questions raised in the discussion paper and encourages interested stakeholders to make a submission.
Your views on the future of biosecurity are important. Make sure you have your say by 5pm AEST Friday 8 July 2016!
To find out more about the review:
- visit: IGAB Review
- email: IGAB Review
- phone: 1800 833 507
Privacy: The department requests that, at a minimum, you provide your name and contact details with your submission. Please indicate if you do not wish to have personal information published with your submission or disclosed to third parties.
Any personal information collected by the department as part of your submission will be used and disclosed by the department for the purposes stated in the Biosecurity Advice. Your personal information will be used to enable the department to contact you about your submission and may be disclosed to specialists, other Commonwealth government agencies, State or Territory government agencies or foreign government departments. Unless you request otherwise, the department may publish your personal information on the department’s website.
The department will handle your personal information in a manner consistent with relevant laws, in particular the Privacy Act 1988. Your personal information will be used and stored consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles and as outlined in the department’s Privacy Policy.
Confidentiality: Subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 and the Privacy Act 1988, content of submissions may be made public, unless you state you want all or part of your submission to be treated as confidential. A claim for confidentiality must be justified and provided as an attachment, marked ‘Confidential’. ‘Confidential’ material will not be made public. The department reserves the right not to publish submissions.
No breach of confidence will occur if the department shares your submission with a third party referred to under ‘Privacy’ in seeking advice in response to your submission.
Intellectual property: Responsibility for compliance with Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in submissions rests with the author(s). In lodging a submission, you warrant you have not knowingly infringed any third party IPR. By lodging a submission, you grant the Commonwealth a permanent, irrevocable, royalty-free, world-wide, non-exclusive licence to use, copy, reproduce, adapt, communicate and exploit all or any of the material contained in the submission.