The Australia and New Zealand Consultative Group on Biosecurity Cooperation 8 September 2016 Meeting
The group met in Melbourne, Australia on 8 September 2016, with representatives from Australia’s Department of Agriculture and Water Resources and New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries.
The meeting commenced with the Technical Working Groups Plant, Animal and Operations, providing their updates on the collaborative work undertaken over the last 12 months. The focus for the next 12 months will be on work that builds on the goals of the group, which are to strengthen strategic collaboration, explore better harmonisation of systems and policies, to improve information sharing and removing barriers to trade.
Australia provided an update on the implementation of the Biosecurity Act 2015 which commenced on 16 June 2016. New Zealand provided an update on their Biosecurity 2025 project to update New Zealand’s 2003 Biosecurity Strategy, including how they consulted with agricultural industries and the wider community.
There was agreement to continue to work collaboratively on the following initiatives:
- Emerging biosecurity risks
- Readiness and preparedness
- Science
- Partnerships
- Trusted border programme
- Surveillance
- Data analytics
The next meeting will be held in June 2017 in New Zealand.