Latest Articles

For previous years’ media releases, please visit the Media release archive.

Christmas hours and emergency contacts

December 21, 2018

The Plant Health Australia (PHA) office will be closed from the afternoon of Friday 21 December 2018 until Wednesday 2 January 2019.

The Board and staff of PHA wish you all a happy Christmas and a safe holiday season.

In the event of an emergency plant pest incident or for any other urgent matters, please contact:

Greg Fraser, Executive Director and CEO, 0419 503 315 or gfraser@phau.com.au More

Exercise Bee Prepared

December 19, 2018

The Australian and state governments and the beekeeping industry participated in Exercise Bee Prepared this year to improve their readiness to respond to a detection of varroa mite (Varroa destructor).

For the exercise, Plant Health Australia facilitated a series of activities and discussion workshops to test the response to a detection of this serious pest of honey bees. More

Results from PHA member survey

December 7, 2018

The Board and staff of Plant Health Australia (PHA) would like to thank all members who took the time to complete our survey, in which they were asked to rate the performance of PHA programs, communication activities and other initiatives.

The online survey and several in depth interviews were done in mid-2018, following up on previous surveys in 2015 and 2012. More

Exercise Fastidious a success

December 7, 2018

Exercise Fastidious was held in Brisbane on 14-15 November 2018. There were 59 attendees from 29 organisations: the Australian Government, all state and territory governments, 13 plant peak industry bodies, PHA, Hort Innovation, CSIRO and representatives from New Zealand government and industries. More

Establishing risk-based surveillance for exotic forest pests

December 6, 2018

Identifying potentially high-risk sites for entry and establishment of exotic forest pests is underway through a pilot national forest pest surveillance program.

Forest Biosecurity Coordinator, Paco Tovar, says that there are pilot projects running in NSW, Victoria and Queensland. More

Role changes on the PHA Board

December 3, 2018

Plant Health Australia announces changes to the roles of some Board members following annual meetings in Canberra last week.

Liz Alexander has been appointed as Deputy Chair. Liz, who has been on the PHA Board for five years, is the Agribusiness Development Coordinator for the Central Highlands Development Corporation in Emerald, Queensland. More