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A departmental biosecurity officer must receive notification prior to the discharge of break-bulk cargo.
Biosecurity officers conduct surveillance inspections of break-bulk cargo to ensure freedom from contaminants that pose a biosecurity risk. Break-bulk cargo or non-containerised cargo, including new motor vehicles, must be examined externally for soil and other contamination and treated if necessary.
Cargo arriving in Australia can often be cleared by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry using declarations and information provided by the importer. To decrease the likelihood that your goods will need to be opened and inspected, provide all required documents that need to accompany your goods as specified in BICON.
You must notify the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry if you are planning to change or cancel your approved arrangement.
Requirements for making changes depends on the type of approved arrangement held, specifically whether you operate a site or perform a service.
Your approved arrangement declarant, manager or site manager must advise the department at least 15 business days prior to the proposed date of any changes to your approved arrangement.
Our search tool is a guide to biosecurity industry participants and the activities they can carry out for imported goods under their approved arrangement.
Biosecurity industry participants that have agreed to have their details published on the department’s webpages appear in the search tool. If you want your details added, updated or removed from the tool, the nominated approved arrangement manager or site contact must contact aa.canberra@aff.gov.au
Biosecurity industry participants and accredited persons are required to carry out biosecurity activities in accordance with approved arrangement class 19. This document provides a guide on how to comply with the class 19 conditions. It also details the compliance classifications when non-compliance is detected.
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has set conditions for how activities can be performed under an approved arrangement. Some conditions are specific to the class of approved arrangement you are operating, and some apply across multiple arrangement classes.
The class of your approved arrangement is based on the:
This glossary contains common terms, acronyms and definitions that relate to approved arrangements. It is subject to review on a regular basis.
Definitions that are not contained within this glossary can be found in the Biosecurity Act 2015 (the Act) or in the most recent edition of the Macquarie Dictionary. Where a definition in this glossary conflicts with a definition stated in the Act, the definition used in the Act takes precedence.
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, 2023
The Approved arrangements general policies details how the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry will assess and monitor compliance, detect and report on noncompliance, address noncompliance and apply administrative sanctions to businesses and individuals operating under an approved arrangement.
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If you are applying for approval of an arrangement with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry under the Biosecurity Act 2015 (the Act), the Director of Biosecurity will need to determine that you are a fit and proper person to carry out biosecurity activities.
The fit and proper person test is completed as part of the approved arrangement application supplied by us.
This guidance will help you understand what is meant by ‘fit and proper’ and what you need to do to meet the fit and proper test.
Changes and variations to approved arrangements can only be made by a biosecurity industry participant that has an existing approved arrangement.
