Shared responsibility and a risk-based intervention approach to the whole biosecurity system is the way forward for biosecurity management, delegates at the ABARE Outlook conference in Canberra have been told today.

Deputy Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Executive Director of the Biosecurity Services Group, Rona Mellor, said the level of risk Australia is prepared to accept will not alter but we are improving the way we manage risk.

“Australia’s biosecurity status is the responsibility of all Australians,” Ms Mellor said.

“Each member of the community has a role to play—before the border, at the border and within Australia—to prevent, prepare for, detect and mitigate biosecurity risks, and respond to, manage and recover from biosecurity incidents should they occur.

'We're no longer just focussing on quarantine. We will consider the comparative risks along the biosecurity continuum and apply risk measures where they give the greatest return or benefit to Australia’s biosecurity status.

“An effective biosecurity system minimises risks to the health of our plants and animals and provides invaluable support to Australian agricultural production and to our place as an important exporter of food and fibre to the world,” Ms Mellor said.

Professor Tom Kompas, Director of the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University, highlighted the importance of economic approaches to biosecurity.

He said a variety of rules and procedures for the proper allocation of resources for surveillance, quarantine, containment and eradication measures for invasive species were needed.

“Proper surveillances measures can ensure cost-effective detection of an invasive species,” Professor Kompas said.

Quin Scalzo, director of Scalzo Food Industries, also addressed the session with a focus on importers in managing biosecurity in international supply, logistics and commercial arrangements.

Mr Scalzo highlighted the particular need for importers to have speedy access to information as well as clear quarantine conditions as part of their role in the continuum of quarantine.