AddressThe Plant Import Operations (PIO) Branch contributes towards the maintenance of the favourable health status of Australia as well as the maintenance of market access by:
- coordinating the implementation of national operational plant biosecurity policy that is consistent with international and national obligations
- monitoring of plant and plant product import pathways
- performing the technical assessment of import permit applications and the issuance of import permits for imported plant and plant products
- developing and verifying compliance with operational plant biosecurity policy, procedures and standards
- providing consistent and science-based technical advice to staff, clients and stakeholders
- facilitating safe importation of plants and plant products.
PIO consists of three operational teams, as well as the Biosecurity Assurance Program, the Plant Innovation Centre, and the Plant Imports Reform Team.
The Biosecurity Assurance Program are seeking to fill a Technical Officer role at the APS 5 level, which is responsible for ensuring that the plant import pathways are supported by appropriate import conditions, strong capability of data analysis, and sufficient assurance and verification mechanisms.
The key activities of this program include:
- providing data analysis to the operational teams for monitoring the level of compliance to import conditions
- establishing policies for audit of critical control points, assurance of core business activities and verification of the effectiveness of biosecurity risk management measures
- co-ordinating amendments to the biosecurity legislation, reviewing supporting material
- managing the Compliance-Based Intervention Scheme for plant commodities.
The key duties of the position include
The Job
As an APS 5 Technical Officer, duties may include, but are not limited to:
- providing technical support to the Senior Technical and Executive Level officers
- assisting in policy development and associated import conditions for plants and plant products based on rigorous pest risk analysis
- assessing and/or issuing import permits under the Biosecurity Act (2015)
- providing technical advice about enquiries for importing plants and plant product commodities
- assisting the program to develop and update training and instructional material on biosecurity import policies, legislation and regulatory processes
- transforming technical advice into instructional material, training material or import conditions
- evaluating training and instructional material and revising the content to align with new information management practices, legislation and technical advice
- assisting with the development of a training and competency framework for the branch
- assisting the program to deliver training packages to staff
- engaging with a range of internal stakeholders.
