Agricultural emergency response

The Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA) works cooperatively with other government agencies, state and national governments, industry bodies and international agencies to enhance both the national and international capacity to respond to biosecurity emergencies that may impact on Australia's agricultural industries. DAFWA’s role in an emergency may be either as a control agency or a support agency.

As a control agency, DAFWA is the hazard management agency (HMA) for emergency management of a hazard of an animal or plant pest or disease.

DAFWA may also be called upon to assist and support other agencies to respond to emergencies where the other agency is the HMA.