28 September 2022
Who does this notice affect?
All customs brokers, importers, biosecurity industry participants, and food importers that departmental officers may attend (for inspections, surveillance, or other purposes).
What has changed?
In response to the ongoing disruptions with commercial cargo imports, the department issued an Import Industry Advice Notice on 25 August 2022 (available at agriculture.gov.au/biosecurity-trade/import/industry-advice/2022/157-2022). The department is aware of the continuing impact delays in biosecurity clearance are having and that this is compounded by current shipping, logistics and workforce disruptions.
What are we doing to manage the increased workloads?
All efforts are being made to manage these increased workloads and reduce the impacts on clients while still effectively managing biosecurity.
The department has established a rapid response team to provide additional capacity to directly manage and reduce the number of delay issues. This will include ongoing collaboration with industry regarding the department’s regulatory service delivery offering.
The intent of the rapid response team is to:
- enhance collaboration with industry regarding the department’s regulatory service activities
- identify biosecurity roadblocks including those that are trade and logistics related
- expand current industry engagements and communications
- develop a targeted triage system for complaint resolution.
We envisage enhanced engagement with industry and will host a range of webinars (both general and sectoral) to provide opportunity for information exchange and collaboration. The team will take on board previous feedback from industry and reuse information from other engagement activity that may be underway to minimise duplication.
The department will continue to allocate its resources to areas of highest priority and implement COVID safe practices to minimise impacts to staff and industry during this time.
Further information
Thank you for your understanding and ongoing cooperation.
For further general information about this Import Industry Advice Notice, please contact the department on 1800 900 090.