Berries Australia supports the basic premise that there should be significantly more consultation as to how the current biosecurity system could be improved and how industry can best contribute. This includes discussion on how to improve efficiency within the department, how costs are distributed across the risk-creator/beneficiary continuum and the most effective mechanism for industry to contribute to the shared responsibility paradigm.
Shared responsibility is supposedly one of the key principles of modern biosecurity management and is enshrined in legislation. In practice however, it has become more about cost shifting than actually enabling non-government stakeholders a role in decision-making. Never has this been more obvious than in relation to the proposed biosecurity protection levy (BPL). Regardless of the discussion as to whether industry should contribute to additional biosecurity measures, the process around raising these funds has deviated completely from best practice in regard to policy making.
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Source: berries.net.au