EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Quarantine Act 1908
Quarantine Amendment Proclamation 2009 (No. 1)
The Quarantine Act 1908 (the Act) provides the legislative basis for human, plant and animal quarantine activities.
Paragraph 13(1)(ca) of the Quarantine Act 1908 provides that the Governor-General, may declare a disease to be a quarantinable disease by proclamation.
The Minute seeks an amendment to section 21 of the Quarantine Proclamation 1998 to add Human Swine Influenza with Pandemic Potential (HSIPP) to the list of quarantinable diseases, as a new quarantinable disease in humans, under section 13(1)(ca) of the Quarantine Act 1908.
The Quarantine Proclamation 1998 is the legislative basis for controlling the entry of humans, animals, plants and other goods of quarantine concern into Australia. Section 21 of this Proclamation lists Australia’s quarantinable diseases.
The purpose of the amendment to section 21 of the Quarantine Proclamation 1998 is to declare human swine influenza to be a quarantinable disease in humans by adding it to the proclaimed lists of quarantinable diseases in humans for Australia.
Human Swine Influenza with Pandemic Potential (HSIPP) is the name currently used for the strain of influenza that is causing significant morbidity and mortality in humans. Formerly, human morbidity and mortality was caused when humans contracted HSIPP from handling infected pigs. However, advice from the World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Committee, the Australian Health Protection Committee and the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer is that clusters of human infection consistent with human-to-human transmission are occurring in Mexico, the United States of America and Canada. In addition, a number of cases are under investigation in a number of other countries around the world.
The effect of the amendment is to ensure that appropriate measures under the Act may be taken to deal with threats to human health from Human Swine Influenza with Pandemic Potential (HSIPP).
Such measures include disease surveillance and reporting systems at Australian international entry ports, enforcing appropriate quarantine measures if suspected cases of disease are identified, and enforcing appropriate disinfection measures on aircraft and ships or port facilities.
The Act specifies no conditions that need to be met before the power to make the Proclamation may be exercised.
The amendment to the Quarantine Proclamation 1998 commences on the day it is registered on the Federal Register for Legislative Instruments.
The proclamation is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.
Authority: Paragraph 13(1)(ca)
of the Quarantine Act 1908