All Australians can contribute to maintaining Australia’s biosecurity status. There is an increasing notion that biosecurity is a shared responsibility between government, industry and the community, as suggested in the Beale review, 2008. Australians from all walks of life can contribute to maintain Australia’s biosecurity status by:
- complying with best biosecurity practice (for example, not taking fresh produce into pest-free areas and controlling pests in backyard fruit trees); and
- helping address biosecurity issues (for example, reporting suspected exotic pests, weeds or diseases or becoming volunteer pest monitors).
In order to get community members on-board it is important to engage them effectively. The Engaging in Biosecurity project (May 2008 – February 2012) investigated how the community could be best engaged to address biosecurity issues; it developed a proposed National Plant Biosecurity Engagement Framework, as well as, a number of other products that could contribute and create more effective community engagement with biosecurity issues.
- A basis for a national action plan for biosecurity engagement (‘big picture’ focus)
- Best recommended practices (regional and local focus)
- Tools and mechanisms
- Involving volunteers in biosecurity programs (an information sheet)
- Communicating biosecurity messages in print (an information sheet)
- A biosecurity engagement checklist for policy-makers and senior staff in government and industry (2011)
- A checklist for investing in biosecurity engagement programs
- A checklist for biosecurity engagement practitioners