This draft policy establishes Council’s framework for undertaking biosecurity inspections, compliance and enforcement activities in accordance with the Biosecurity Act 2015. It provides guidance to ensure regulatory actions are undertaken in a consistent, transparent and risk-based manner across the local government area.
The review primarily involved minor administrative, formatting and wording updates to improve clarity, consistency and alignment with current regional processes and operational practices, without changing the overall intent or substance of the policy. The updated draft policy does not have track changes; the following updates were made, and the current policy is located here.
Updates
• Most written summaries within each section have been reworded for clarity and consistency; however, these revisions are minor in nature and do not alter the intent or substance of the original content, with the overall structure and sections largely remaining unchanged.
• The Inspection & Compliance Process Flow Chart has been updated/ replaced to adopt the version contained within the North Coast Regional Inspection Plan to ensure consistency and standardisation across the region.
• Removed Weed Biosecurity Matrix (Section 5.7)- this is covered largely in the Inspection & Compliance Process Flow Chart
• Removed mention of NSW Community Justice Centre (http://www.cjc.nsw.gov.au), which is now closed and no longer active.
• Updated related documents list with current
• Added landfill facilities in list of high risk sites
• Added council-managed lands in definition list
• Amended 5.9 Councillor Involvement in Compliance to the following: Councillor involvement in the compliance and enforcement of Council’s Biosecurity Policy is limited to strategic oversight and policy adoption. Operational enforcement is delegated to Authorised Council Officers. While community members can make representations to Councillors regarding potential breaches of the policy, these should be handled through Council’s formal, established procedures rather than direct
intervention. Councillors should encourage residents to report alleged breaches directly through the council’s Customer Service systems and Authorised Officers to ensure consistent, risk-based enforcement
• Following feedback from the Environment & Sustainability Committee/Valleywatch Inc., the following amendments were made: Changed policy title from Biosecurity Policy to Biosecurity (Weeds) Policy - Addition of Section 8 Education & Community Engagement
File download:
Biosecurity (Weeds) Policy - DV2.0(PDF, 442KB)
Submissions should be made in writing to the General Manager, Clarence Valley Council, Locked Bag 23, Grafton NSW 2460, clearly marked “Biosecurity (Weeds) Policy - DV2.0”, or submitted online by 4:00 pm, 5 November 2026 via the ‘Make a submission’ button below.
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