As the Australian Federal government continues to jepodise our nation's staple food production by pursuing up to 700 giglitres of water through buybacks from the productive pool under the basin plan, we will become increasingly reliant on importing produce into our country.

This misguided approach puts us under increasing biosecurity pressure.

The National Biosecurity Training Hub has been established in response to these increasing pressures.

In an attempt to build and support biosecurity preparedness and response capacity and capability, the hub recognizes a need for a centralised and coordinated approach to national training.

It is home for online training connecting industry, community and government to training providers across Australia.

Currently there is 15 providers supporting 64 courses across 13 different topics across 8 locations.

Courses include managing pests and diseases in a honey bee colony, entry condition and compliance procedure for citrus red mite and introduction to the Australian plant production standard.

Jessica Citrus Australia said completing the Industry Liasion Officer online course gave her the foundational knowledge which she was able to put into practice in a face-to face workshop, freeing up time for in depth discussions about what it means to be an ILO.

Mandy from Plant Health Australia recommends the Hitchiker course to anyone who works in the supply chain. She said it gave her the tools to recognise hitchhiker pests and how to report suspicious pests without being an expert.

Australia’s biosecurity system will play a critical role in maintaining a strong agricultural sector, educating the wider community will play a major role in its success.

The National Biosecurity Strategy is a 10-year document designed to help deal with the multiple risks our country faces across multiple fronts. The six priority areas include:

• shared biosecurity culture to ensure everyone understands their role to play

• strong partnerships across local, regional, national and international levels

• highly skilled workforce to ensure the right level of capability and capacity

• coordinated preparedness and response to prevent, detect, manage, respond and recover from outbreaks

• sustainable investment targeted to a sustainable long term future

• integration supported by technology, research and data creating a connected and efficient science based system to facilitate timely and informed risk based decisions.