Key events
Senate told of biosecurity breaches by United Airlines
United Airlines has breached Australia’s biosecurity reporting requirements three times in three years by failing to report that a dog was on a commercial flight, a Senate estimates committee heard on Tuesday.
Anna Brezzo, the department of agriculture’s first assistant secretary for compliance and enforcement, said in response to questions from Victorian senator Bridget McKenzie that the airline had breached the pre-arrival reporting requirements on a flight into Sydney in December 2022 and a flight into Brisbane in March 2024, and had breached requirements by invalid disinfection of a plane in August 2023.
“The dogs themselves were assistant dogs and they did have an import permit to arrive into Australia,” Brezzo said. “What we require however under the Biosecurity Act is that the airline lets us know ahead of time what is coming in on their airline.”
Brezzo said the breach was picked up by biosecurity officers at the airports because it’s “a bit hard to miss the dog coming off the commercial airline”.
United Airlines entered into a voluntary undertaking in August 2024 to undertake auditing, update its compliance framework and train its staff. Compliance with that undertaking will be monitored by the department of agriculture over the next 15 months, Brezzo said.
“Should they fail to commit or to abide by the agreement in the undertaking, we will take them to federal court and let the federal court make that decision.”
McKenzie asked why it took three breaches to enforce the voluntary undertaking.
“That looks like permissive parenting that we just let them keep getting away with a slap on the wrist,” she said.
The deputy secretary for biosecurity, operations and compliance group, Justine Saunders, said the response was “absolutely proportionate” and more effective in terms of ensuring long-term compliance.
“Our intent is not to punish but actually to address the breach,” she said.
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Good morning and welcome to our live Australian political coverage. I’m Martin Farrer bringing you the best of the overnight stories and Tory Shepherd will be along to guide you through the day.
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