Earlier this year, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) advised of delays in assessment, booking and inspection services in some states, largely due to a changing biosecurity risk profile and higher overall cargo volumes (up 11.7 percent this year). Now they are announcing the establishment of a rapid response team to tackle these delays.
In recent months, several biosecurity threats have emerged, both onshore and amongst Australia’s neighbours, which have placed further demand on biosecurity resources.
- February 2022, Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) detected for the first time in southern Australia
- March 2022, Lumpy skin disease (LSD) was reported in Indonesia
- May 2022, an outbreak of the Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) was reported in cattle in Indonesia, and more recently Bali
- June 2022, Varroa mite (Varroa destructor) detected in Port of Newcastle (NSW) hives.
At the same time, and like industry, DAFF is competing for scarce resources in a challenging labour market while also dealing with the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 (and further Omicron strains), including staff being offline due to illness or having to isolate with families.
DAFF is aware of the impact that the delays in inspection services is having and that this is compounded by current shipping, logistics and workforce disruptions. These factors are beyond DAFF’s control but are adding pressure to border clearance processes and the scheduling of biosecurity officer activities.
Imported cargo subject to inspection has a non-compliance rate of 15% on average during August 2022, adding to delays. Examples of non-compliance include dirty machinery, soil or risk material found inside or on external sides of containers and vehicles, risk material such as exotic pests and seeds in imported goods and, mis declared or mislabelled goods.
Containers and goods that are inspected, and found to be clean and free from dirt, soil and risk/exotic material are released from biosecurity control generally without further intervention or re-inspection.
Yesterday (28 September 2022) DAFF issued Industry Advice Notice no.182-2022: Establishment of the Cargo Service Delivery Rapid Response Team. It is addressed to the attention of all customs brokers, importers, biosecurity industry participants, and food importers that DAFF officers may attend (for inspections, surveillance, or other purposes).
The notice advises that all efforts are being made to manage these increased workloads and reduce the impacts on clients while still effectively managing biosecurity.
DAFF has established a rapid response team to provide additional capacity to directly manage and reduce the number of delay issues. This will include ongoing collaboration with industry regarding the department’s regulatory service delivery offering.
The intent of the rapid response team is to:
- enhance collaboration with industry regarding DAFF’s regulatory service activities
- identify biosecurity roadblocks including those that are trade and logistics related
- expand current industry engagements and communications
- develop a targeted triage system for complaint resolution.
They envisage enhanced engagement with industry and will host a range of webinars (both general and sectoral) to provide opportunity for information exchange and collaboration. The team will take on board previous feedback from industry and reuse information from other engagement activity that may be underway to minimise duplication.
DAFF assures all stakeholders that it will continue to allocate its resources to areas of highest priority and implement COVID safe practices to minimise impacts to staff and industry during this time.
For related posts see Biosecurity Updates and BMSB Procedures.
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