Officers can now take action
BURDEKIN Shire Council have authorised basic Biosecurity Programs to identify and manage selected pest weeds and animals under the Biosecurity Act 2014.
The Biosecurity Program will raise the profile in the community of certain pest weeds and animals that the council wishes to focus on and will also remind landowners of their general biosecurity obligation.
Biosecurity Programs were used in non-emergency situations to enable government to proactively identify and respond to a pest, disease or other biosecurity matter that poses a risk.
Public Health and Environment coordinator Preeti Prayaga said that under existing approvals Council’s authorised officers could enter places to ascertain if a biosecurity risk existed but couldn’t take action.
“Under a biosecurity program, an authorised officer may, at reasonable times, enter the place to take any action authorised by the biosecurity program,” she said.
A surveillance program may be authorised to monitor compliance with the Act, or to confirm the presence, or determine the extent of the presence, of invasive plants and animals.
Alternatively, a surveillance program may also monitor the effects of measures taken in response to a biosecurity risk or confirm the absence of the biosecurity matter.
A prevention and control program may be authorised to prevent the entry, establishment or spread of weeds and pest animals in an area or to manage, control or eradicate them to reduce a significant biosecurity risk.
The council has a Burdekin Shire Biosecurity Plan 2020-2025 that provides strategic direction for the management of invasive biosecurity matter and other priority pests on all land tenures within the region and has been developed by and for the entire community.
The plan has identified species that pose or are likely to pose a significant biosecurity risk to agricultural production and the environment in the Burdekin area.
The program was developed to ensure Council was meeting its legislative requirement’s and had the necessary authorisation to ensure that the outcomes of the biosecurity plan were implemented.
The program was required so that appropriate actions could be taken by Council to manage, reduce or eradicate invasive pests that were in areas where invasive biosecurity matter could pose a significant biosecurity risk.
This included being able to respond to new populations of invasive pests or to escapes of invasive pests held under restricted matter permits in certain areas.