CO-REGULATION PROJECTS

The Industry Working Group on Quarantine's report 'Cargo Industry Self-Regulation of AQIS Functions Part 2' was presented to AQIS via the AICCC in August 1998. The major thrusts were agreed to, in principle, by the then Executive Director of the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, Mr. Paul Hickey on 16/12/98. One of the main recommendations of the report was the furthering of co-regulation activities and the development of a generic Compliance Agreement.

An AICCC Co-Regulation Project Committee was established and a model has been developed providing a consistent framework for compliance agreements with industry. Details of this model can be accessed within the Framework section. This model is aligned to the AQIS Regulatory Framework which was last reviewed in late 2005 and the various co-regulation schemes will be adjusted to fit in with the latest AQIS framework.

Since the commencing work on Co-Regulation schemes in the late nineties considerable progress was made in expanding the scope of the Broker Accreditation Scheme from being applicable to container packaging concerns to include LCL consignments and commodities. In the Quarantine Approved Premises area all Class 1 premises operate under compliance agreements.

Initially some 12 individual projects were identified as providing opportunities for industry to carry out certain AQIS functions. Some of these projects have been evaluated and deemed not suitable whilst others have been set up within the framework of co-regulation and the status of each of these projects is listed below: