A joint submission to the draft Queensland Biosecurity Strategy 2017-22 by the Invasive Species Council, the Queensland Conservation Council and the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland.
The submission supports the new inclusive approach to managing biosecurity risks adopted by the Queensland government and generally endorses the draft strategy. Issues for improvement include:
- better recognition of the limited capacity of the conservation sector;
- better application of the general biosecurity obligation;
- limitations in prioritisation due to the difficulty in putting an economic value on environmental biosecurity benefits;
- the need to provide a stronger focus on social and environmental issues;
- better recognition of the unique role of government in risk identification, preparedness, early responses, compliance and research;
- the need for a more transparent way of resolving conflicts between the goals of environmental biosecurity and commercial or private interests;
- addition of case studies that demonstrate environmental biosecurity.
The submission was submitted in July 2017.