Federal biosecurity
In 1997, Australia’s quarantine laws underwent major reform to require risk assessment of new exotic organisms proposed for importation. Now, new federal biosecurity laws are being drafted after the independent Quarantine and Biosecurity Review found that the system needed an overhaul.
Some aspects of biosecurity are also regulated under federal environment laws - the Environment Protection & Biodiversity Conservaton Act 1999. In a recent independent review of the EPBC Act, ISC was successful in achieving strong recognition of the threats of invasive species and some promising recommendations for reforms. See analysis below. We will be campaigning for their adoption.
The Invasive Species Council strongly supports the federal approach to biosecurity, based on risk assessment of new imports. However, there are some significant deficiencies – in particular, the lack of regulation over many threatening invasive species that were imported prior to the 1997 reforms. Once a species is approved for import, it is largely up to each of the states and territories to regulate its sale and use. With invasive species one of the top three threats to Australian biodiversity, the Invasive Species Council advocates a much greater focus of federal environment law and policy on these threats.
There is also the need to better regulate the importation of new varieties of exotic plants and animals that could have different environmental impacts or could hybridise to create 'super-invaders.
More than two-thirds of 17 key threatening processes listed federally are invasive species, but threat abatement is often poorly funded. With climate change likely to greatly exacerbate the threats of invasive species, there is an even greater imperative for addressing existing threats and preventing new ones.
Find out more
Review of the EPBC Act - an ISC analysis
Backgrounder on the risks of importing new varieties of exotic organisms
Submissions
ISC submission 1 to the 2009 independent review of the EPBC Act - 888kB PDF
ISC submission 2 to the 2009 independent review of the EPBC Act - 200kB PDF
Submission: 2003-04 Senate review of invasive species management - 409kB PDF
Other links
2004 Senate report: Turning Back the Tide - the Invasive Species Challenge
Key threatening processes listed under the EPBC Act