EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Biosecurity Act 2015
Biosecurity (Listed Human Diseases) Amendment Determination 2020
Authority
The Biosecurity Act 2015 (the Act) provides the primary legislative means and a regulatory framework for the Australian Government to manage the risk of pests and diseases from entering Australian territory and causing harm to animal, plant and human health, the environment and the economy. The Act manages biosecurity risks – including the risk of listed human diseases – entering Australian territory, or emerging, establishing or spreading in Australian territory.
Subsection 42(1) of the Act provides that the Director of Human Biosecurity may determine, in writing, a human disease to be a listed human disease if the disease may be communicable and may cause significant harm to human health.
Purpose
The purpose of Biosecurity (Listed Human Diseases) Amendment Determination 2020 (the instrument) is to add human coronavirus with pandemic potential to the list of human diseases in this instrument. The disease is required to be listed in the instrument to allow human biosecurity measures under Chapter 2 of the Act to be imposed, thereby allowing Australia to manage and respond to biosecurity risks to human health caused by that virus.
Background
On 5 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) notified Member States under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) of an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan city, China. The cause of the outbreak has since been determined as a novel coronavirus.
Under the IHR, the WHO has recommended that health authorities work with travel, transport and tourism sectors to provide travellers with information to reduce the general risk of acute respiratory infections, including at points of entry and through conveyance operators.
All powers under Chapter Two of the Act require that the disease be a listed human disease for the power to apply. These powers include the ability to screen incoming passengers for signs and symptoms of a listed human disease, the ability to impose Human Biosecurity Control Orders on those who are suspected or confirmed as having a listed human disease and implementing further risk mitigation measures.
To enable compliance with the WHO’s recommendations, and to implement additional border measures under the Act, it is necessary for human coronavirus with pandemic potential to be determined as a listed human disease. The inclusion of human coronavirus with pandemic potential enables application of border measures under the Act in order to manage this or other emerging coronaviruses and their potential for human to human transmission.
Consultation
Subsection 42(2) of the Act requires that before making a determination under section 42, the Director of Human Biosecurity must consult with the chief health officer (however described) for each State and Territory and the Director of Biosecurity.
The Director of Human Biosecurity consulted the States and Territories and the Director of Biosecurity. The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee and the Communicable Diseases Network Australia, comprising Chief Health Officers and communicable disease experts across state and territory governments, met via teleconference on 20 January 2020, and endorsed the addition of human coronavirus with pandemic potential as a listed human disease.
The Director of Biosecurity, Mr Daryl Quinlivan, was also consulted in regards to the determination and on 21 January 2020 confirmed his support of the amendment.
The instrument commences on the day it is registered.
The instrument is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislation Act 2003.
A provision by provision description of the instrument is contained in Attachment 1.
ATTACHMENT 1
Provision by provision description of the Biosecurity (Listed Human Diseases) Amendment Determination 2020
- Name
Section 1 provides that the name of the instrument is Biosecurity (Listed Human Diseases) Amendment Determination 2020.
2. Commencement
Section 2 provides that this legislative instrument commences on the day it is registered.
3. Authority
Section 3 specifies that this instrument is made under subsection 42(1) of the Biosecurity Act 2015.
4. Schedules
Section 4 provides that instruments included in the schedule to this instrument are amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the schedule.
Schedule 1 – Amendments
Item 1 of Schedule 1provides that section 4 of the Biosecurity (Listed Human Diseases) Determination 2016, which is the list of Listed Human Diseases, is amended to include ‘human coronavirus with pandemic potential’ in that list.
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights
Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011
Biosecurity (Listed Human Diseases) Amendment Determination 2020
This legislative instrument is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.
Overview of the Legislative Instrument
The Biosecurity (Listed Human Diseases) Amendment Determination 2020 adds ‘human coronavirus with pandemic potential’ as a listed human disease, and therefore enables the application of a range of measures under the Biosecurity Act 2015.
Human rights implications
This legislative instrument engages and is consistent with Article 12(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by assisting with the progressive realisation by all appropriate means of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
This instrument provides the means of protecting public health in Australia through enabling the application of human biosecurity measures to manage the risk of human coronavirus with pandemic potential entering Australian territory, or emerging, establishing, or spreading in Australian territory or a part of Australian territory.
Conclusion
This legislative instrument is compatible with human rights because it promotes the human right to an adequate standard of living and the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
Professor Brendan Murphy
Director of Human Biosecurity
Chief Medical Officer
Department of Health