EPPRD Q&A

What is the Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed?

The Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed (EPPRD) is a formal legally binding agreement between Plant Health Australia (PHA), the Australian Government, all state and territory governments and plant industry signatories. This agreement covers the management and funding arrangements of responses to emergency plant pest (EPP) incidents.

The EPPRD came into effect on the 26 October 2005, once PHA and all government parties signed.

The EPPRD replaces previous informal arrangements and provides a recognised role for ‘affected industry parties’ to participate in approved responses, and assume a greater responsibility in decision making. The EPPRD is the plant sector equivalent of the Emergency Animal Disease Response Agreement which operates in the animal (livestock) sector.


What is an emergency plant pest?

For a pest to be classified as an emergency plant pest (EPP), it must either be listed in Schedule 13 of the EPPRD, or be determined by the Categorisation Group or National Management Group to be of potential national significance and meet at least one of the criteria below:

  • a known exotic pest
  • a variant form of an established plant pest
  • a previously unknown pest
  • a confined or contained pest.

What are the benefits of the EPPRD?

The EPPRD provides a consistent and agreed national approach for managing EPP incursions. This allows industries and governments to respond quickly and effectively to an EPP incident, while minimising the uncertainty over management and funding arrangements.

  • Allows industry to be directly involved in decision making about mounting and managing an EPP response from the outset. Industry and government representatives are appointed early and given authority to commit to actions and funding decisions, which also ensures that trained and accredited personnel are involved in EPP responses wherever possible
  • Ensures costs are minimised for all parties. There is a requirement that all funding parties remain engaged in cost sharing until the response is successful or a decision is made that it is no longer feasible or cost effective. Potential liabilities are known and funding mechanisms are agreed in advance.
  • Owners may be eligible for reimbursement of certain direct costs if their crops or property is directly damaged or destroyed as a result of implementing an approved response plan. The Australian Government has an agreement to underwrite an industry party’s share of costs where that industry party has an approved mechanism for repayment.
  • Commitment to risk mitigation by all parties through the development and implementation of biosecurity strategies and programs
  • Performance standards for government parties – All state and territory government parties are required to meet performance standards for emergency response resources and to provide legislative support for response activities and grower reimbursement payments.

Related documents

The following documents are available:

EPPRD representative pro-forma
EPPRD contacts for notices form
Confidentiality Deed Poll
Nomination of authorised signatory form