Plant biosecurity: safeguarding plant industries in Western Australia

The mission of Western Australia's plant biosecurity programs is to safeguard plant resources from exotic and established pests and diseases. The Department of Agriculture and Food has adopted a 'biosecurity continuum' approach with pre-border, border and post-border biosecurity strategies as integral components of this approach. Western Australia's plant industry biosecurity plans represent a holistic approach which identifies key threats to productivity, sustainability and market access and outline preventive and response strategies. It involves development and implementation of biosecurity plans for each industry supplemented with farm biosecurity and regional biosecurity plans.

The management of biological risks to market access, product safety, quality, productivity and sustainability is a shared responsibility and can be managed together and cost-effectively by means of partnerships between industry, community and government.

The Department implements science based quarantine policies and phytosanitary measures in the least trade restrictive manner necessary to maintain the appropriate level of biosecurity protection in accord with our national and international obligations. The Department's biosecurity policies and operations are targeted to facilitate safe trade, tourism and commodity movement whilst reducing exposure of the State's plant resources to exotic biological risks. Our achievements are a result of pre-border, border and, post-border strategies (industry, farm and community) that reduce the likelihood of introduction, establishment and spread of biological threats.

Plant Biosecurity in Western Australia is supported by the following legislation:

• Biosecurity and Agriculture Management Act 2007 
• Quarantine Act 1908 (administered and enforced by the Commonwealth government, AQIS)  

Pest Alerts

Myrtle rust

• Myrtle rust information page
• Myrtle Rust import restrictions
• Myrtle rust alerts (Department of Primary Industries, Water, Parks and Environment, Tasmania)

Chestnut blight

• Symptom description ( Pest and Disease Image library - PaDIL)
• Factsheet (Plant health Australia)

Tomato-Potato Psyllid

• Factsheet (Ausveg)

Related information

• AGWEST Plant Laboratories
• Agriculture biosecurity in Western Australia
• APVMA Chemical Review Program
• Do you use dimethoate or fenthion on your produce?
• Border biosecurity : Quarantine WA
• Declared Plants database
• Exporting from Australia (AQIS)
• Farm Biosecurity
• HortGuard - biosecurity for horticultural industries
• Invasive species
• Permitted and quarantine species list
• Plant pest surveillance
• Plant industry biosecurity plans
• Pre-border biosecurity : pest risk analysis and policy

Other links

• Plant Health Australia
• CRC National Plant Biosecurity

Presentations

• Biosecurity in Western AustraliaBiosecurity - an integral part of global food security strategy
• Biosecurity for global food security - summary  (full presentation) 
• Keynote address - Global food security issues