9 July 2026
This morning the Queensland Farmers' Federation (QFF) and Biosecurity Queensland brought together senior industry and government leaders in Cairns for a Biosecurity in the Boardroom Breakfast and tour of the Port of Cairns, extending biosecurity awareness and risk governance into boardrooms across Far North Queensland.
Representatives attended from a range of sectors including agriculture, transport and logistics, tourism, education and research, energy, natural resource management, and government, coming together to confront growing biosecurity risks.
The event forms part of the Biosecurity in the Boardroom initiative, a joint effort helping organisations across every sector, and particularly those outside of agriculture, recognise biosecurity as an operational, reputational and financial risk worth managing from the boardroom down.
Keynote speaker Richard Stevenson, CEO of Ports North, opened the breakfast with an overview of the Port's biosecurity obligations as a port operator and how these requirements are managed day to day.
Mr Stevenson then joined a panel featuring Queensland Chief Biosecurity Officer Dr Rachel Chay, Plant Health Australia Chair Doug Phillips, and Tourism Tropical North Queensland CEO Mark Olsen, who unpacked what growing biosecurity risk means for commercial operators well beyond the farm gate. Attendees were then taken on a tour of the port, where Mr Stevenson walked the group through operations and the safeguards in place to protect the region from incursions.
The Biosecurity in the Boardroom initiative will continue with another regional event later this year in Southeast Queensland, alongside a digital campaign led by QFF to inform the broader public and small business leaders of their biosecurity risk obligations.
QFF CEO Jo Sheppard said today's event reflected the momentum building behind the Biosecurity in the Boardroom initiative since its launch.
"The response in the room today shows just how far the conversation has come. Boards and leadership teams outside agriculture are starting to ask the right questions: is biosecurity on our risk register, have we trained our people, what would a breach actually cost us," Ms Sheppard said.
"Business leaders from all sectors are encouraged to get involved and can access a range of resources from the QFF website to get the conversation started – it's about embedding biosecurity risk management as part of every company's culture, just as we have for WH&S, and cyber security risk management."
More information on managing biosecurity risk is available via the Business Queensland website, with further detail on the Biosecurity in the Boardroom initiative, and free resources to start the conversation in your organisation, available at www.qff.org.au/projects/biosecurity-in-the-boardroom
Media contact:
Jak Kirwin
General Manager, Marketing and Communications, QFF
E: comms@qff.org.au
M: 0488 305 106