the land to ensure are managed as per the prescribed control all ‘declared pests’ measures. The ability of government agencies to extensively monitor landowner compliance with the declared pest legislation has not been rigorously evaluated; however, the Western Australian Auditor of the management of plant General’s audit and animal pests noted is limited monitoring and almost no enforcement of ‘there landowner responsibilities to control established pests’. It is view that the limited government biosecurity resources should be Council’s targeted toward areas that provide the most effective use of public funds (e.g. prevention and early intervention), and that it is not an effective use of government resources to ensure landholders are adequately managing low priority declared pests. As such, Council recommended that: The declaration status and categorisation of declared pests be reviewed at least every five years, and changes made to the statuses/categorisations as required. The review process must be robust and enduring, and understood by key stakeholders. A process and criteria be developed in partnership with industry and community, and used to identify low priority declared pests. Low priority declared pests are as permitted organisms under ‘re-declared’ section 11 of the BAM Act, unless external resources are available for compliance and enforcement activities. Progress: Species program completed reviewing the declaration DAFWA’s Invasive status and categorisation of the current declared weeds and vertebrate animals in June 2016. The process used a science-based assessment as the first step, followed by stakeholder consultation. This process was developed in consultation with key stakeholders, and has since been documented in the DAFWA policy and ‘Declaring Categorising Organisms: Section 22(2) Declared A stakeholder reference Pests’. group provided comment on the results of the science-based assessment and recommendations regarding changes to the declaration status/categorisation. The process identified as those that no longer met the criteria for ‘low priorities’ declaration; and for the to they were a priority ‘low priorities’ remain ‘declared’ only if species being targeted by stakeholder groups (such as Industry Funding Schemes or biosecurity groups). Emergency response preparedness and cross-agency collaboration (2013) Western Australia is obligated under national arrangements to maintain adequate capacity to undertake a sustained response to a major biosecurity outbreak.
the land to ensure all ‘declared pests’ are managed as per the prescribed control measures. The ability of government agencies to extensively monitor landowner compliance with the declared pest legislation has not been rigorously evaluated; however, the Western Australian Auditor General’s audit of the management of plant and animal pests noted ‘there is limited monitoring and almost no enforcement of landowner responsibilities to control established pests’. It is Council’s view that the limited government biosecurity resources should be targeted toward areas that provide the most effective use of public funds (e.g. prevention and early intervention), and that it is not an effective use of government resources to ensure landholders are adequately managing low priority declared pests. As such, Council recommended that: The declaration status and categorisation of declared pests be reviewed at least every five years, and changes made to the statuses/categorisations as required. The review process must be robust and enduring, and understood by key stakeholders. A process and criteria be developed in partnership with industry and community, and used to identify low priority declared pests. Low priority declared pests are ‘re-declared’ as permitted organisms under section 11 of the BAM Act, unless external resources are available for compliance and enforcement activities. Progress: DAFWA’s Invasive Species program completed reviewing the declaration status and categorisation of the current declared weeds and vertebrate animals in June 2016. The process used a science-based assessment as the first step, followed by stakeholder consultation. This process was developed in consultation with key stakeholders, and has since been documented in the DAFWA policy ‘Declaring and Categorising Organisms: Section 22(2) Declared Pests’. A stakeholder reference group provided comment on the results of the science-based assessment and recommendations regarding changes to the declaration status/categorisation. The process identified ‘low priorities’ as those that no longer met the criteria for declaration; and for the ‘low priorities’ to remain ‘declared’ only if they were a priority species being targeted by stakeholder groups (such as Industry Funding Schemes or biosecurity groups). Emergency response preparedness and cross-agency collaboration (2013) Western Australia is obligated under national arrangements to maintain adequate capacity to undertake a sustained response to a major biosecurity outbreak.