Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, , 9:07:27 to 9:11:18
Officials outline ongoing reviews of surveillance arrangements and the role of the Inspector-General of Biosecurity in assessing risk management across the biosecurity continuum.
Topics: Biosecurity, Government spending, Integrity
Speakers: Senator Ross Cadell, Justine Saunders, Miss Victoria Anderson, Dr Susie Collins, Unknown Speaker, Senator Glenn Sterle
>> Well, certainly, as we do with any event such as this, Senator, we have already embarked on our own review of our surveance arrangements. In fact, we already had that in train and looking at our approved arrangements prior to this event. So we routinely in light of the risks which are constantly changing and we know the biocurity risks are increasing we continually review our frameworks how we operate our processes and and as part in response to this we will obviously look very closely at that we've also engaged the inspector general of bio security who was already embarking in agreement with us to embark on looking at the risk assess the may we manage risk across the continuum and her immediate priorities to look at this as a case study to see how effective our measures are and if they need to change
>> so I'm assuming different buckets of money on I'm assuming ready to be wrong different bugs the Commonwealth funding for the response program what runs out in June 27 currently that doesn't affect your border controls and the lure and these these monitoring
>> no it doesn't and that's being treated as a as a as a completely different response noting it was it's been a new detection not related to southeast Queensland
>> and and Senator just for a little bit further information about the lures um the information that that I think Miss Saunders was trying to convey earlier is because of their other sites in the area >> there were actually 160 lures deployed >> quite a lot of sausages. [laughter] Quite a lot of sausages out there. So I think the reason we have some confidence is that it wasn't just this site that was being inspected. It was the area and
years there's routine surveillance of within of a 1 kilometer radius of this site.
>> Yeah. But we Okay. To I like linking unrelated things. We used to have a shopping shop in a food court at a shopping center, right? And the problem was at one stage we'd all get our pests done on our 12-month calendar and the cockroaches just move two doors down until the next [laughter] >> Yeah, that's my my concern until we all started getting them all done at the same time. my this rotating thing and I know what you're saying is that in the area and the overall capture >> it's fine but individually doesn't stop those ants coming there for up to two years and actually establishing more of a colony.
>> Well, I think like please correct me if I'm wrong um Susie or other scientists, but I think the point is that within a kilometer radius of where this detection was found, there was plenty of opportunity for those lures to trap. So if we had seen a spread, >> you would have seen it in some of those lures we expect. So
>> So you have lured other places around there since.
>> Pardon?
>> You've lured other places around there
since >> very and very close. I mean, Miss
Saunders can explain it, but we're
talking like like facilities that are sort of side by side. So the lures, the 160 lures I referred to were in that area within a kilometer. So I think, you know, we're confident that um there was not there was not spread of this um because we would have seen it in those
lures over that. If you did not done that after that gives more
>> most of the risk is in that 500 m radius that's where we focus um if it's on when we do find a detection and does go out to 2 km and our our surveillance as m said within that 1 km zone and over um on multiple occasions uh over the last 3 years although not at this particular approved premises has provided a a level of confidence I suppose that it's uh not uh not significant infestation across My
last question, similar topic. Um, >> uh, my mate Alex from do, the turf farmer, he's telling me that we've stopped turf from Queensland coming down or we've stopped in soft. Is that
>> I'd have to take on notice what the current movement controls are between Queensland and New South Wales. That that could be right, but I'd have to confirm.
>> Okay. Can we just take that on notice what controls there are for turf, especially in softline trucks from Queensland to New South Wales? >> Thank you very much.
>> Thank you, Kadell. Now, Senator Roberts, we got till 6:15 before we're going to have a break, mate.