Whilst Vinehealth Australia and Biosecurity SA are working hard to prevent phylloxera entering SA, we acknowledge that a range of biosecurity threats, including phylloxera, are on our doorstep and we must be prepared.
Vinehealth is working with Biosecurity SA to improve the state’s Phylloxera Outbreak Plan, which will be renamed the ‘Phylloxera Preparedness and Response Plan for SA’. The new plan will be a contemporary one and the principles addressed in this plan will serve state regulators and industry well in preparing for all future plant pest incursions, including working to minimse industry downtime in the first week of an incursion.
The Phylloxera Preparedness and Response Plan will feature two components:
- A regulatory response component to primarily address state level preparedness; and
- An industry preparedness component to primarily address business level accountability.
The regulatory response component is being created now and a draft is expected to be completed by 31 December 2019. Thereafter, the industry preparedness component will be completed by Vinehealth Australia in conjunction with industry by 30 June 2020.
The regulatory response component aims to deliver a plan that:
- Details a timeline of activities that must be undertaken in light of a phylloxera incursion;
- Details each regulatory activity, the responsible party and links to associated documents outlining the scope and conduct of each activity;
- Minimises downtime for industry during an incursion based on the pre-preparation of regulatory documentation aimed at gazetting quarantine areas and describing movement requirements; and
- Works in conjunction with the industry preparedness plan to outline how movement decisions are made from a regulatory perspective in times of an active incursion and therefore the importance of industry preparedness and forward thinking prior to an incursion.
The industry preparedness component aims to deliver a plan that:
- Improves acknowledgement at a business level of biosecurity as a business threat;
- Focuses on building and assessing ground-level preparedness from a business, regional association and state association level given knowledge of the regulatory response during an incursion; and
- Focuses on developing strategic industry thinking to address biosecurity preparedness to minimise short and long term effects of an incursion.