Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) wish to advise that the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (the department) has recently issued Import Industry Advice Notice 60--2022 in relation to the release of the Biosecurity Portal in NSW and ACT.
What has changed?The Department is working to deliver a client and workload management capability to support a cost effective, modern and client focused service delivery model across biosecurity operations. This work is being carried out in close consultation with industry.
Biosecurity Portal
A key part of this work is the introduction of the Biosecurity Portal which will allow importers, approved arrangements operators and customs brokers to request an inspection booking, view, and manage inspections at any time in a centralised online location.
The portal will streamline the current manual and resource intensive email process, reducing industry's effort in managing and tracking import inspection requests. The portal will also allow you to view AIMS direction information issued by the Department.
This ability to make and manage import inspection booking requests and view directions via an online system is the first function in a broader scope of work intended to modernise and improve the biosecurity system for clients.
New Email Addresses
The Department is also implementing a new system, the Scheduling and Workload Management System (SWMS) which will manage request for inspections, the scheduling of these requests, and the management of the associated booking.
As a result, from 26 April 2022 any requests for import inspections at NSW and ACT sites, submitted using the RFI form instead of via the portal, should be emailed to the relevant new email address:
• ImportsRFINSW@agriculture.gov.au
• ImportsRFIACT@agriculture.gov.au
Please refer to the FAQ for more information https://www.awe.gov.au/biosecurity-trade/import/arrival/clearance-inspection/booking
Who is supported by the Biosecurity Portal?
The Biosecurity Portal currently supports all approved arrangements, brokers, and importers seeking to make import inspections for goods they are importing into Australia.
At this stage, clients who require bulk booking or airway bill requests, operate manned depots, or do not have an ABN cannot use the Biosecurity Portal and should use the existing email-based system with the new email addresses (listed above).
From Tuesday 26 April 2022 the Biosecurity Portal will be available to request and manage import inspection bookings for sites in NSW and ACT.
It will be made available to WA and Vic in subsequent months.
The department continues to implement new initiatives and technologies to streamline the way we work and improve our services.
This includes changes to our IT systems as outlined in Import Advice Notice 36-2022, the phased deployment of the Biosecurity Portal to automate the booking process, and automation of our assessment and workload management systems.
These initiatives have and will continue to deliver efficiencies in the biosecurity system including time and cost savings to industry.
While we deploy these significant reforms and initiatives, and our staff transition to a new way of operating, we will be closely monitoring for any disruption to processes associated with your import inspection bookings.
What do you need to do?Approved arrangements operators, customs brokers and importers will need to set up or use an already existing myGovID (https://www.mygovid.gov.au) account linked to their organisation via Relationship Authorisation Manager (RAM) (https://authorisationmanager.gov.au/#/login) to access the secure Biosecurity Portal.
This only needs to be done once.
Please refer to the Biosecurity Portal webpage (https://www.awe.gov.au/biosecurity-trade/import/online-services/biosecurity-portal/about) for further information on how to authenticate your profile via myGovID and RAM to begin to make bookings via the portal.
If you need assistance with myGovID registration or Biosecurity Portal usage, please contact biosecurityportal@awe.gov.au
Users from other regions should continue to use the existing email-based system until notified.
Further information To ensure you remain updated on these changes, we recommend registering to receive BICON alerts and Import Industry Advice Notices. |