Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Pursuant to order and at the request of the chairs of the respective committees, I present the report of the Environment and Communications References Committee on environmental biosecurity, together with the Hansard record of proceedings and documents presented to the committee.

Ordered that the report be printed.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

I am pleased to table this report into invasive species as the chair of the Environment and Communications Committee.

Firstly, I would like to thank all those who took the time to write a submission.

The committee received almost 100 submissions from organisations, government bodies, experts and interested individuals across the country.

I would also like to acknowledge those who took time out of their schedules to appear before the committee hearings in Perth, Sydney, Hobart and Canberra.

And of course I have to recognise the great work of the Environment and Communications Committee secretariat under the very capable guidance of secretary Christine McDonald.

The team has done an excellent job, yet again.

Biosecurity in Australia is facing a number of challenges, not least of which is the increasing cross-border movements of people, cargo and mail.

All of these pathways present a risk that an environmental or agricultural pest could breach our borders.

At the same time, climate change is changing the geographic range that invasive species can thrive in.

And of course staff cuts at government agencies and reduction in research funding are also hitting hard.

Environmental biosecurity faces extra challenges because it does not have the same range of stakeholders to contribute financially to biosecurity efforts as industry biosecurity does.

It also faces greater difficulties in detection, and, because it functions across a much broader range of species and ecosystems, the task becomes even more complex.

The inquiry had broad terms of reference to consider the effectiveness of Australia's arrangements to prevent the entry and establishment of invasive species likely to harm Australia's natural environment.

The committee considered how well Australia has responded to recent incursions from exotic organisms.

It also looked at how prepared Australia might be for future incursions by considering how well we identify risks, determine priorities and undertake contingency planning.

This took in analysis of surveillance, compliance monitoring, enforcement and reporting activities, along with the institutional arrangements for environmental biosecurity.

The committee heard from a number of witnesses about the shortcomings of the current arrangements, and the best way forward.

On the basis of this, it put forward 26 recommendations.

I think this provides a great framework from which to proceed.

The first recommendation was that the newly legislated Inspector-General of Biosecurity undertake a systematic review to determine how well environmental biosecurity concerns are addressed within the broader biosecurity framework.

The committee also made a number of recommendations to improve arrangements between the federal and state and territory governments under the National Environmental Biosecurity Response Agreement, or NEBRA.

It also recognise that there are difficulties in assessing the success or otherwise of our current efforts due to a lack of meaningful performance indicators.

As a result, a number of recommendations focus on developing meaningful methodologies to measure progress, an audit of the implementation of Australia's Biodiversity Conservation Strategy.

It also suggested reviews of funding allocations processes in order to minimise delays for time-sensitive work.

Another area of potential improvement is that of reporting, and the committee recommends the creation of a national priority list of pests and diseases of concern.

One issue that was reported by many submitters to the inquiry was a decline in the level of scientific expertise and a reduction in research funding to address environmental biosecurity in Australia.

As a result, the committee recommended that the Department of Industry and Science look at these issues.

This would include a strategy to address the decline in expertise, a review to prioritise our research needs, which would include specific investigation of our capacity to examine the effects of climate change on invasive species.

In a similar vein, the committee recommended that the Commonwealth establish a taxonomic identification service that calls on existing expertise to be used in a more efficient and coordinated manner.

Another area of concern that some submitters raised was the great risk posed by internet retailers that sell plants and seeds into the country that breach our import requirements.

In response to this the committee recommended that the Department of Agriculture needs to undertake enforcement activities and work with these businesses to ensure that appropriate warnings are displayed before purchase.

In relation to specific threats, the committee recommended that measures in the Tramp Ant Threat Abatement Plan are fully implemented.

It also called on the Department of Agriculture to review its cargo surveillance measures in order to increase detection rates.

Another recommendations looked at the horticultural industries and called for standardised labelling, weed identification, and sales tracking protocols.

We also recognised the risk of privately owned birds escaping and put in a recommendation to strengthen regulations around private aviculture imports.

Along similar lines, the committee found it would be useful to do some work on identifying the pathways by which exotic birds are entering the country and develop a national database of seized exotic wildlife.

There were also recommendations for a national mandatory biofouling management regime and more regular ship inspections targeted in biofouling.

In the marine area, the committee recommended improved border surveillance for freshwater fish imports and the implementation of the on-arrival fish health monitoring program.

The final recommendation in the report called for a national framework for managing biosecurity in the unique environment of Australia's islands.

I commend this report to the Senate. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted.