IT DOESN’T take much to remind the world how serious Australia is about biosecurity – the little yellow incoming passenger card on arrival into the country is enough for most. For industry it’s container inspections, cargo clearances, the return of brown marmorated stink bug season, national action plans and, fairly recently, a splash of funding to strengthen the system.

The 2023-24 federal budget outlined an increase in funding intended as reinforcement for the national biosecurity system. It allocated more than $1 billion over four years to protect Australia from invasive pests and diseases that, according to the government, would devastate exports, regional jobs and the environment.

An $850-million portion of the funding was directed at maintaining biosecurity policy, operational and technical functions. According to budget papers, that cost would be partially met through the introduction of cost recovery arrangements for the clearance of low value imported cargo.

Minister for agriculture, fisheries and forestry Murray Watt said the sustainable biosecurity funding model set out in the budget (a first for Australia) would see government commit more permanently dedicated taxpayer funding and recover biosecurity clearance costs from importers and others who “create risk”.

He announced intentions to introduce a new cost recovery charge of 40 cents per item on low value goods imported into Australia by sea.

“From 1 July 2024 the costs of these biosecurity clearances will be recovered, to deal with the growing biosecurity risk from incoming parcels and similar items,” Mr Watt said during a visit to a cattle saleyard in May.

“While a small impost on individual items, this fairer system is expected to recover more than $27 million,” he said.

Mr Watt said this was on top of increasing fees and charges on importers that came into effect on 1 July 2023, ensuring importers would contribute “more fairly” by meeting the real cost of biosecurity clearance.

“These increases to fees and charges for importers are expected to contribute an extra $45 million to our biosecurity efforts,” Mr Watt said.

“The Australian government will also make sure that fees and charges remain aligned to the cost of delivering the biosecurity service into the future.

“Importers’ fees will be reviewed and adjusted annually, and the department will work with industry to make sure our charging models are fit for purpose and as part of this, will look at other options including a possible future import or container levy.”

Mr Watt said a biosecurity levy on agricultural producers from 1 July 2024 would help meet the costs of sustainably funding the biosecurity system. He described it as “a very modest levy” for those who benefit from the system.

“It will mean that producers will contribute 6% of overall funding for the biosecurity system that is so important to their livelihoods.”

And, in response to biosecurity risks of the “sheer volume of cargo” and mail at the borders, the government also committed $145 million over three years into a simplified targeting and enhanced processing system.

“This program aims to digitalise and make our systems as efficient as possible so we can free up our biosecurity workers for other jobs and reduce congestion at the border,” Mr Watt said.

Away from our shores

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in April this year published its Commonwealth Biosecurity 2030: Action Plan 2023. The plan outlines the government’s biosecurity priorities and strategic actions designed to address biosecurity threats.

One of those strategic actions involves expanding offshore assurance arrangements and overseas supply-chain integration. It effectively aims to mitigate biosecurity risks before they reach Australian shores.

A DAFF spokesperson told DCN addressing the risks ahead of export from overseas keeps Australian borders safe and allows the department to manage biosecurity risks more effectively.

“Stakeholders that put controls in place and into effect to manage biosecurity risks offshore allow the department to have a lighter touch when goods arrive in Australia and creates the opportunity for faster border clearance,” they said.

Where goods are treated offshore, and where there is no further biosecurity concern, those goods can clear the border without the need for department intervention.

“The same goes for used vehicles imported through the Recognised Offshore Pre-inspection and Cleaning program and, at an individual supply chain level, commodities that are on the Compliance Based Inspection Scheme.

“All these programs allow the department to reduce intervention where supply chains show clean pathways and/or offshore biosecurity risk mitigation.”

Under the 2030 action plan, and specifically the strategy to expand offshore assurance arrangements, the government is working on using industry supply chains with controls in place that match – or better – departmental biosecurity controls.

“We have developed guidance material that industry can use to implement offshore measures for new vehicle importer’s parent companies and their supply chains, as well as developed a scheme for registering and managing offshore biosecurity treatment providers to give greater assurance that offshore treatments are conducted effectively and compliantly.”

Hitchhikers’ guide to the supply chain

One example of DAFF’s approach to tackling biosecurity risks offshore is its management of the brown marmorated stink-bug threat.

Australia’s supply chain is well acquainted with the agricultural pest – by the time this magazine is in print, brown marmorated stink bug season will have returned, and with it a spate of measures for goods imported from certain countries and the vessels that call those countries. The little brown hitchhikers could do some very serious damage if ever established in Australia.

“Our strong biosecurity system has prevented many of the world’s most notorious hitchhiker pests, such as khapra beetle and brown marmorated stink bug, from establishing in Australia,” DAFF’s spokesperson said.

They said several countries, including Australia, have seen an increase in hitchhiker pest detections.

“There are 25 million sea containers in circulation across the globe, making roughly 241 million trips per year. This makes halting the spread of hitchhiker pests and contaminants a challenge of global proportions.

“In collaboration with Australian universities, research organisations, industry and international counterparts, the department is taking significant steps to address the hitchhiker pest risk associated with the sea container pathway.”

DAFF’s Hitchhiker Pest Program aims to address the risk of major hitchhiker pests that can be carried via containers, their cargo and associated packaging. The four-year program involves 22 individual projects spanning areas including risk and assurance, industry arrangements and data analytics.

Data sourcing

This use of data is increasing as DAFF looks to assess and design controls to manage risks of pests reaching Australian shores. The department has identified a “single and reliable source of data” on container arrivals and biosecurity outcomes as a first step in building these controls. It anticipates an improvement in the department’s capacity to associate pest detections with relevant cargo, containers and vessels.

DAFF’s spokesperson commented on a recent case study on container data sourcing and integration. The department has been obtaining data to use alongside information on pests to build a dataset for containers. It sourced data from the Department of Home Affairs and commercial data providers, applying an address-matching algorithm to reveal data on container movements that was not previously available.

According to a summary of that case study, the resulting dataset has been used to inform development of policies for onshore approved arrangements to manage the risks of hitchhiker pests.

“The case study on sea container data sourcing and integration highlights the value of a single and reliable source of data on container arrivals in order to assess and manage biosecurity risks,” the spokesperson said.

“This data source allows DAFF to link together information about where a container came from, what it carried, whether it was referred to DAFF for biosecurity concerns, what interventions were applied to manage the biosecurity risk, and the biosecurity outcomes, such as any detections of pests.”

They said the combination of all the pieces of information is needed to identify the risks associated with different container pathways. It then informs the department how it should manage those risks.

“DAFF now has a single source of data on container arrivals and are working to integrate this with data on biosecurity interventions to create the picture that is needed to refine how container biosecurity risks are managed.”

An industry perspective

Andrew Christie, managing director of Andrew Christie Consulting, specialises in biosecurity facilitation and compliance for importers and exporters. Formerly a director at the Department of Agriculture, Mr Christie now offers training to help businesses understand biosecurity processes and meet departmental requirements.

While there has been a lot of movement on the biosecurity front in terms of funding, strategies and digital developments, Mr Christie said industry is still experiencing challenges with consistency and timeliness. He said there is an avenue for providing “electronic solutions” that give better assurances to government that work is getting done.

“I’m also of the belief that the department should let industry develop the processes, and then seek approval for those processes rather than the department trying to do things themselves and then implement them to industry,” Mr Christie said.

He also highlighted the challenge of recruiting enough biosecurity officers to manage a growing workload. A wave of staff employed in the early 2000s left during Covid-19, leaving a gap in the workforce.

“Those staff now starting to get to 22 or 23 years in the department are starting to retire, and new people are coming in,” Mr Christie said.

“So, you’re losing a large group of staff that have a significant knowledge base, and you’re bringing in new staff. You can’t put someone in a biosecurity office, give them a car, give them a microscope and say, ‘off you go’. It can take 12 to 18 months to train them in one function.

“The short-term impact is that importers aren’t getting inspections done in a timely manner in some instances, and are waiting one, two or three weeks to get a job inspected.”

Mr Christie noted the cost of storage and container detention while inspections are done, but he said in the long-term, hopefully, more staff and more biosecurity officers will be trained to reduce the wait time and ease the pressure on those currently handling the workload.

“The department is looking at how they can alleviate some of those workload issues, so they’re now allowing industry to be more interactive and do some inspections,” he said.

He highlighted the new approvement arrangement class 14.4, which allows industry to inspect certain containers coming into Australia. According to Mr Christie, that means country carriers can now have a container inspected at a depot at any time or the day or night, bypassing the gridlock traffic they would normally encounter during the day. It means around 55,000 rural tailgates done each year can be done by industry, freeing up staff on rural tailgates to perform other functions.

“That’s a benefit for both industry and the importer, and it’s a benefit for the department,” Mr Christie said.

Mr Christie encouraged industry to be more proactive on the training and compliance front. He said there is a common belief that it is enough to do a round of training and obtain the relevant certificate or approval, but businesses don’t always understand that the department will return throughout the year to ensure procedures are being followed.

The consequence of non-compliance is a costly one – it can mean a fine, multiple fines, or potentially losing a licence.

“They’re taking longer to do approvals now because they want to ensure they do it right,” Mr Christie said.

“It used to be a case of ‘get your licence, it’s all good’, but those days are gone. You have to be really proactive now … you need to look at it every day.”

This article appeared in the September 2023 edition of DCN Magazine