The report represents the outcomes of the first phase of a multi-year project designed to develop a rigorous method that can be used repeatedly to evaluate the health of the national biosecurity system against agreed performance criteria using appropriate performance indicators. The report was prepared for the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (the department), but has relevance to all participants in the national biosecurity system.

The department currently relies largely on qualitative pathway-specific risk analyses and reviews to assess and address potentially unacceptable exposures to biosecurity risk. These analyses and reviews focus mainly on elements of the biosecurity system for which the Australian government has responsibility. However, the department does not currently have a means of estimating the health of the national biosecurity system as a whole against appropriate performance criteria. This is a significant business gap that limits the capacity of the department to evaluate the effectiveness of its investments across the biosecurity system. Other participants, such as state and territory governments, are equally constrained in assessing the role they play in meeting the objectives of the overarching biosecurity system.

The report summarises progress to date on the project. It uses a program logic model to describe the key elements of the national biosecurity system, including the activities undertaken in the system by different participants, the resources to support them, the outputs that are produced by these activities and the outcomes they generate. The report also identifies the broad attributes of health against which the biosecurity system will be evaluated. These recognise that the national biosecurity system should be capable of meeting its objectives in an effective, efficient, robust, resilient and sustainable manner.

A case study is used in the report to measure aspects of biosecurity health against the framework. The case study is focused on some activities in the biosecurity system that are designed to prevent biosecurity risk material from entering the country on the air passenger pathway. The case study provides insights into the challenges and opportunities that will arise from the measurement of national biosecurity system health. It also explores the accessibility of data necessary to underpin effective performance evaluation and identifies gaps in current data availability.

The capacity to articulate the health of the national biosecurity system in clear terms against appropriate criteria provides a sound basis on which all participants can identify where system improvements can be made, either individually or on a collective, system-wide basis.