When the Australian Government was established in 1901, it had limited involvement in public health issues, with the exception of quarantine. This has remained largely unchanged with the States taking a major responsibility for public health management of communicable diseases.
The Biosecurity Act 2015 provides for the management of biosecurity threats posed by people, goods, vessels and aircraft at Australia’s international borders. The departments of Health and Agriculture and Water Resources have joint responsibility for administration of the Act, which commenced on 16 June 2016 and fully replaced the Quarantine Act 1908.
Public health legislation in each State and Territory mandates the reporting of certain diseases by medical practitioners, hospitals, and/or laboratories to the relevant State or Territory Communicable Diseases Unit. Notifications are collected at the State/Territory level, and computerised, de-identified records are sent to the Australian Government Department of Health for collation into the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) for analysis at a national level. NNDSS was established in consultation with the Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA).
The following links provide access to relevant public health legislation for each of the Australian States and Territories and to the Commonwealth Biosecurity Act.
Australian Capital Territory
New South Wales