Weed Biosecurity

From 1 July 2017 the Biosecurity Act 2015 and its subordinates came into effect replacing all or part of 14 Acts including the Noxious Weeds Act 1993.

The Act provides modern, flexible tools and powers that allow effective, risk-based management of biosecurity in NSW. It will increase efficiency and decrease regulation in responding to biosecurity risks and provides a streamlined statutory framework to protect the NSW economy, environment and community from the negative impact of pests, diseases and weeds.

General Biosecurity Duty

The General Biosecurity Duty (section 22 of the Biosecurity Act) states that:
“any person who deals with biosecurity matter or a carrier and who knows, or ought reasonably to know, the biosecurity risk posed or likely to be posed by the biosecurity matter, carrier or dealing has a biosecurity duty to ensure that, so far as is reasonably practicable, the biosecurity risk is prevented, eliminated or minimised.”

Priority Weeds

The Central Tablelands Regional Strategic Weed Management Plan(PDF, 2MB) supports regional implementation of the NSW Biosecurity Act 2015 by articulating community expectations in relation to effective weed management and facilitating a coordinated approach to weed management in the region.

The plan identifies state and regionally prioritised weeds and outcomes to demonstrate compliance with the General Biosecurity Duty.

NSW WeedWise contains over 300 priority weeds, describing:

• Profile
• Control (including registered herbicide options)
• Biosecurity duty (under the Biosecurity Act 2015)

Your role

All land owners or land managers have a ‘General Biosecurity Duty’ to prevent, eliminate or minimise the Biosecurity Risk posed or likely to be posed by weeds.

If a weed poses a biosecurity risk in a particular area, but is not the subject of any specific legislation, Council’s Authorised Officers may rely on the general biosecurity duty to manage that weed or prevent its spread.

If Council’s Authorised Officers believe that the owner/occupier of the land is failing in their biosecurity duty to control weeds on their land then they can issue a Biosecurity Direction to prevent, eliminate or minimise the biosecurity risk.

Council’s role

As a land manager, Council must prevent, eliminate or minimise the risk posed by weeds found on land under its control. Council is also the Local Control Authority for the Cabonne Council Local Government Area, which means Council is responsible for administering and enforcing the Biosecurity Act 2015 in respect to weeds. This includes inspecting private and public lands to ensure owners/managers of land carry out their obligations.