Priority plant pests
The National Priority Plant Pests, identified by Plant Health Committee, highlight the sort of threats Australia faces from plant pests. While they are not the only plant pests of biosecurity concern, they are used to focus government effort and national preparedness capability. These pests have the potential to cause significant damage to our plant industries, our environment and our way of life, and it is in the national interest to be prepared.
Office of Biosecurity and Compliance, Deputy Secretary, Dr Chris Locke, provides an overview of the National Action Plans for priority plant pests.
Hello everyone. I am Chris Locke – the Deputy Secretary responsible for Biosecurity in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
Biosecurity is a shared responsibility, which requires large networks across industry and government to move in concert, often at short notice.
Easy to say quickly, but that’s a big challenge.
National action plans for national priority plant pests set out the “how”. “How” we will prepare for pest and disease threats to our plant industries, environment and our way of life.
The success of each plan ultimately depends on a high level of cooperation and collaboration between industry, all levels of government, non-government organisations, research agencies and the community.
Implementation of these plans is subject to the oversight of the plant health sectoral committee, which sits under the National Biosecurity Committee, or NBC, which I have the privilege to co-chair.
The NBC sees these plans as critical. They are our mechanism for collectively bringing our plant biosecurity strategies to life. For the Commonwealth, they are hard-wired into meeting our Biosecurity 2030 targets. But there is also recognition of the strong alignment required with other national and industry- focused biosecurity strategies.
You have an opportunity to shape the national action plans supporting priority pests by providing valuable insights through highlighting complementary work while also addressing gaps and issues that require action at the national level. This may occur through participation in workshops, the Have You Say public consultation process or review forums.
This vital participation will assist in good buy-in across the biosecurity system and implementation of actions within the plans.
The Department is very grateful for the investment you are making into this important work to help prepare Australia against exotic plant pests.
I look forward to working with you all on getting Australia ready. Thank you.
Our approach
National action plans for National Priority Plant Pests set out how we will prepare for these threats. They identify the capabilities to improve the way we prevent these pests from entering Australia, and to detect and respond to incursions if these pests were to enter Australia.
Responsibility for oversight of the national action plans, and monitoring implementation of actions lies with the relevant sectoral committee under the National Biosecurity Committee.
National Priority Plant Pests and national action plans are a national resource to focus investment and effort. The implementation schedule for each national action plan are annually reviewed with key stakeholders and further information can be found in the download section. Additional plans are being developed and will be made available when finalised and endorsed.
National action plans
The National Hitchhiker (Contaminating) Plant Pest Action Plan 2022-2032 provides a nationally agreed strategy to enhance Australia’s capacity to prevent the introduction of hitchhiking plant pests and prepare for a response if these pests are detected in Australia. The actions outlined in the plan set out how outcomes will be achieved. The hitchhiking plant pests covered under this national action plan include exotic bees, Asian spongy moth, brown marmorated stink bug, giant African snail, and the emerging hitchhiker pest, the spotted lanternfly.
The Plant Health Committee is responsible for this national action plan.
The National Khapra Beetle Action Plan 2021-2031 builds on actions already undertaken and provides a nationally agreed strategy to enhance Australia’s capacity to prevent the introduction of khapra beetle and prepare for a response should it be detected in Australia. The actions outlined in the plan set out how this outcome will be achieved.
The Plant Health Committee is responsible for this national action plan.
The National Xylella Action Plan 2019-2029 provides a nationally agreed approach to enhance Australia’s capacity to prevent the introduction of Xylella and exotic vectors and prepare for a response, should it be detected in Australia, and sets out how the actions to achieve this outcome.
The Plant Health Committee is responsible for this national action plan.
The National Invasive Ant Biosecurity Plan 2018-2028 provides a nationally agreed approach to enhance Australia’s capacity to manage the ongoing threat of invasive ants establishing in Australia and the impacts caused by those species already established.
The Environment and Invasives Committee is responsible for this national action plan
It has been agreed by the Plant Health Committee that national action plans be developed to cover all National Priority Plant Pests. The status of development of these national action plans is provided below:
- National Action Plan for Pests of Trees and Timber – commenced
- National Action Plan for Fruit Flies – commenced
- National Action Plan for Pests of Broadacre Crops – commenced
- National Action Plan for Pests of Horticultural Crops – planning underway
- National Action Plan for Spotted Wing Drosophila – planning underway
Downloads
Download
National Hitchhiker (Contaminating) Plant Pest Action Plan 2022-2032 (PDF 993 KB)
National Hitchhiker (Contaminating) Plant Pest Action Plan 2022-2032 (DOCX 12.7 MB)
National Xylella Action Plan 2019-2029 (PDF 2.2 MB)
National Xylella Action Plan 2019-2029 (DOCX 2.3 MB)
Xylella Implementation Schedule 2022 PHC endorsed (PDF 402 KB)
Xylella Implementation Schedule 2022 PHC endorsed (DOCX 71 KB)
National Khapra Beetle Action Plan 2021-2031 (PDF 6.0 MB)
National Khapra Beetle Action Plan 2021-2031 (DOCX 9.0 MB)
Khapra Beetle Implementation Schedule 2022 PHC endorsed (PDF 377 KB)
Khapra Beetle Implementation Schedule 2022 PHC endorsed (DOCX 66 KB)
Published submissions may not meet Australian Government accessibility requirements as they have not been prepared by us. If you have difficulty accessing these files, contact us for help.