Aust. quarantine

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To be honest I wouldn't be too worried. If it all goes ahead, which is doubtful, I'd expect that they might tighten things up a little ICON wise, but it's pretty tight already.
Perhaps there will be tougher penalties on attempting to bring non-allowed species in, or maybe they'll stop a lot of imports altogether leaving the local collector's to look to each other to produce seed etc
However, as the lists were a lot more generic (literally - whole genera were allowed ) pre 2006, there is a lot of stuff still being grown that isn't on ICON and I really can't see them doing anything to anyone for growing those plants, unless the plant is listed on some kind of weed list, or is banned for some other reason. Seriously doubt anyone will get in trouble for growing Mamm's in a greenhouse, but fields of Opuntias or Trich's on a country property might be another thing !!
They already have people who volunteer their (apparently TOO much free) time to look for declared weeds out and about, in people gardens,nurseries and what have you.
And don't forget, even now you can fill out a Plant Introduction form (essentially doing AQIS's work for them) and if the species passes weed risk assessment, it will be added to ICON the next time they do their 6 monthly update. I've always thought that this is something that the Australian C & S Societies should work on as a united cause. Co-ordinated submitting of assessment forms for all the C & S species that aren't currently on ICON, but should be. Stuff like M. luethyi and herrerae for example, which pose zero weed threat. AQIS just isn't interested in adding species unless someone does the legwork for them, by doing the research and filling out the form. This is exactly what might need to happen if tighter restrictions or penalties are put in place - rather than worry about being caught with an unlisted plant, get it listed !
But the flipside of this is that I also think that there's a bit of a vested interest by some collectors at the moment (who have the hard to get plants) in keeping some artificial restrictions in place.... makes their plants, and any they propogate, all the more valuable!
Perhaps the moral of the story is that we should all be propagating our plants and distributing them, especially any of the now harder to get ones ?
Besides, it could very well turn out that it isn't AQIS we C & S collectors will really have to worry about, but CITES....

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If you are found importing seeds of species not on the ICON list, they will soon have the right to raid your home and garden and confiscate anything that is not permitted on the ICON list. This means that any plants that may have been legal to import several years ago, but which are no longer permitted, can be confiscated. And what about species not on the ICON list but already growing in Australian parks and gardens??

No doubt there are hundreds if not thousands of plant species (generally speaking, not limited to cacti and succulents) which are growing in Australia and are not on the ICON permitted species import list. and so and not legal to import.

Many of these have been growing in this country for many decades, some hundreds.

Many are not invasive, not on any state or national weed list and otherwise legal to grow..

The only reason they are not on the permitted species list is simply because they have not been assessed.

I doubt there would be many grounds for prosecution i.e. evidence
that said already present plant which is not a permitted import was actually imported.
(Of course, if the plant is actually on a relevant local weed list then prosecution could certainly result)

IF they wanted to get serious and declare that any plant not on the ICON permitted species list could be deemed a weed and legally be destroyed then botanical gardens would effectively be rendered dustbowls.

I remember hearing that overtly zealous environmentalist students from a leading Australian university wanted to remove old Ginkgo trees from the uni grounds with the justification of them being "not-native". A few weeks later fossil Ginkgo leaves were discovered nearby...

Lets not forget the Chinese and Indonesians who traded with the Aborigines and brought the dingo and cats to Australia centuries or more before the continent was even discovered by Europeans.
Take Jujube, Ziziphus zizyphus- Chinese date.
This was growing in northern Western Australia, introduced by the forementioned means way before 1788. It is now included on that states weed list.
Tamarinds, native to African tropics.. also in nth Aust via human-mediated transport prior to 1788.

It wont matter if the plant has been here for 200 years or 5 min, if ICON says its prohibited then you either destroy it or risk the fines. If its not OK in ICON then the fact that you have it would be an offense as will be moving plant materials without permits, even approved plants. If you or I get nabbed it will be up to us to have the plants professionally Id'd at our expense, AQIS has been that way for years.
The ugly bit will be the unidentified plants?????

It's all in the name of agroterrorism & biosecurity, to argue would be unaustralian! apparently.
Aqis has never been in the business of doing assessments (its was an inspection service, Australian Quarantine Inspection Service) assessments were the job of biosecurity australia & If you want a plant assessed then you have to fill in the forms, supply the info & pay to have it done, its a user pays world.
They will use the nosey neighbor system & persecute a few ppl to get the majority to fall into line.
Scooby is right domestic mail screening will start the same as international mail is currently as well as screening of the internet (forums like this are popular).
You can say goodbye to ebay as soon as it comes into effect. & yes its already started, AQIS is no more, its BSG now.

I wouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves. Don't forget ICON is "Import Conditions", and controls what's allowed to be brought in (at present) and not whether you can actually own the species or not. As I understand it, if you bring in a species that's not allowed on ICON, yes, it's an offense, but possessing such a plant without having imported it (i.e it was obtained locally, or before the revamp in 2006) isn't an offense, unless it's banned for some other reason (i.e. a declared weed, drug etc).

It does sound like there will be stricter border controls coming though, and something along the lines of ICON looks like it will soon be applied there too.

Mind you, that's not too say there won't be a different all-encompassing database at some future stage that governs everything I suppose, including what you can possess...but ICON won't be it....

Its more to do with business than anything else, remember the beale report came as a result of the equine flu that cost the racing industry $ and the citrus canker that shut down the citrus industry. The greens are happy to back it but that isn't where the motivation is.

ICON is presently only import but it is THE data base & so the perfect place to work from, besides the logic seems to be "if its not in ICON then it must have been smuggled" , & how long has icon existed??? & how perfect is it? i remember i couldn't import wild rice as seed but i could import 2kg bags for "human consumption" WTF.

Mind you none of this has gone past the planning stage, no body has seen the new laws as yet, just whispers & we probably wont see a thing untill after the next election. It could be unpopular in some electorates.

Agribusiness dont want anymore pests,weeds or disease, it costs mega $, billions from memory.
They have to allow imports of just about everything because of trade agreements that even include how much can be screened, so the easiest thing to do is limit disease spread by limiting hosts, import Phillippines + Moko disease so you limit moko's spread by restricting banana trees & other hosts.
Thats why they have been talking licensing & registration, so in the event of an outbreak they know where to come looking. and in the long run its easier to monitor 5 or 10 mega nursery's on compliance agreements than thousands of hobbyists & backyard nursery's. The same sort of thing has been happening with the fruit industry for years, fees & pain in the ass level increases so only the very big growers are left sending fruit south, no difference realy.

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Mind you none of this has gone past the planning stage, no body has seen the new laws as yet, just whispers

Yeah I don't think we should panic just yet.

some of these comments are making this change sound akin to the rise of some kind of neo-Nazi Third Reich or an Orwellian dystopia.

True we shouldnt panic yet, the pollies might sere some sense.
The trouble with these comments is that many of them are based on past experiences & comments already made by Biosecurity Qld.

One doesnt have to look to far to see that as a general rule Australian governments are moving away from "its ok unless we say so" to "its not ok unless we say so", the latter has worked fairly well for them (Dpi, Aqis & now Bsg) since 1984 (that was when the noxious lists were being replaced with "clean lists") The latter is far simpler for them to police, shortish lists to worry about & the onus is on the individual to prove Id's & innocence.
More than a few ppl have pleaded guilty in the past few years when they probably werent guilty because it is cheaper than trying to fight the charge. Although from what i gather that may not be the the case with the new legislation.

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I dunno Scooby I knew a granddad who got dragged through the court system for over 2 years & to the tune of nearly $60k (mostly the gov's court costs because he chose to fight) when it was all said & done, over a trio turtles his mother had bought him as a child.
They wanted to prosecute him for smuggling except that a receipt surfaced showing customs had charged duty on them back in the 1950's, god dont ya just hate paper hoarders.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1342967.htm

Sorry to bring this quite old topic up but I re-read it with some interest.


So what's the deal with the Beale?


Are there any major new changes happening with Aust. quarantine very soon? or have any already happened?



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Thread EDITED by moderator: edited and deleted some of (ex.)member scooby posts ()

AQIS is now BSG (Biosecurity Services Group australia) but in name only they haven't changed web pages, uniforms or stationary as yet, they haven't got the states on board yet (same kinda deal as with health) or announced what happened with the talks with the states in February.
They haven't even finalized the draft legislation or if they have they would be sitting on it until after the election.
The boat is rocking enough as it is, KRud is unlikely to want anything else that has any potential to blow up in their faces.
So basically it just sitting in the background simmering at present. & only god or possibly Tony Burke knows when it will surface.

RIP Scooby why did he get so nasty??

I think he ran out of Scooby Snacks.....

^


Scooby is no longer an active member of this forum.



Shortly,

Thankyou for the information.
I guess now its just wait and see.