2019-11-12 Planning & Environment Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT                                   12 NOVEMBER 2019


3                        NOOSA BIOSECURITY PLAN 2020
DOCUMENT INFORM AT ION




Author                            Principal Environment Officer, Peter Milne
                                  Environment and Sustainable Development Department

Index                             ECM/ Pest management

Attachments                       1.   Draft Noosa Biosecurity Plan 2020 (32 page attachment provided
                                       separately to this agenda)


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Not applicable

RECOMMENDATION
That Council note the report by the Principal Environment Officer to the Planning & Environment
Committee Meeting dated 12 November 2019 and resolve to commence public consultation on
the Draft Noosa Biosecurity Plan from 25 November until 23 December 2019.

REPORT
1.                       Background
Biosecurity is defined as efforts to prevent, respond to and recover from pests and diseases that
threaten the economy and the environment. Under the Queensland Biosecurity Act 2014 all
public and private landowners have a responsibility for managing pests (invasive plants and
animals) identified in the Act. Wildlife protected under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 that may
be a nuisance at times such as magpies and flying-foxes are not a pest under the Biosecurity
Act.
The Noosa Pest Management Plan 2015-2019 guided the management of invasive species
however this plan expires at the end of the 2019 calendar year. The new Queensland Biosecurity
Act was enacted in 2014 and commenced in 2016. The Biosecurity Act 2014 replaces previous
legislation and requires local government to have a Biosecurity Plan that is accessible to the
public. The attached Draft Biosecurity Plan 2019 will replace the previous Noosa Pest
Management Plan once complete.
The development of the Noosa Biosecurity Plan is consistent with the Noosa Environment
Strategy 2019 for biodiversity and sustainable living goals of improving the condition and extent
of our natural ecosystems and adopting sustainable agricultural practices.

2.                       Summary of Plan
There are significant changes proposed for the new Noosa Biosecurity Plan 2020 (Refer
Attachment 1). Risk assessments of individual invasive species have been undertaken to
identify shire wide priorities for action such as prevention, eradication or containment. Although
landowners have a biosecurity obligation for all scheduled species, identifying priorities allows a
planned approach to invasive species management, particularly for large landholders like
Council.
In addition, many invasive species that were previously listed as environment weeds (Category
3) under the Noosa Pest Management Plan 2015-2019 are no longer scheduled species under
the Biosecurity Act 2014. Examples are shown page 29 of the Plan (Attachment 1). These
species may be managed by public and private landowners on a voluntary basis and can be
guided by a Property Pest Management Plan or Ecological Restoration Plan.



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