The Subcommittee on Plant Health Diagnostic Standards (SPHDS) was established in 2005, as a subcommittee of Australia’s Plant Health Committee (PHC). Its primary goal was to ‘establish, implement and monitor professional and technical standards within plant health diagnostic laboratories through the development and maintenance of an accreditation system and national diagnostic protocols’. This is all part of a push to facilitate activities that will enhance Australia’s plant biosecurity.

SPHDS has a number of working groups that address issues critical to the ongoing sustainability of the Australian diagnostic system. SPHDS role expanded in 2008 with the formation of a national diagnostic strategy working group who are developing a strategy for inclusion in the National Plant Health Strategy which is currently being developed by Plant Health Australia. More recently SPHDS has undertaken a more active role in the training of diagnosticians through its newly formed training working group.

At the recent Science Exchange, members of SPHDS met with our PhD students to explain the purpose of SPHDS and how it will assist in further developing the outcomes of PhD students work to inform national diagnostic standards. The members from SPHDS included Jane Moran (Chair of SPHDS and CRC program leader), Deb Hailstones (CRC representative on SPHDS and CRC program leader), Barbara Hall (Chair of the SPHDS working group on diagnostic standards and CRC project leader) and Suzy Bently (Chair of the SPHDS working group on the national diagnostic strategy). The CRC work closely with SPHDS and Kirsty Bayliss (CRC program leader) has recently joined the newly formed SPHDS training working group.

SPHDS members at the Science Exchange also took the opportunity to explain the obligations we all have as plant health researchers to report new findings to their states biosecurity agencies as soon as they suspect something unusual.

More information about SPHDS can be found on the SPHDS website www.daff.gov.au/animal-plant-health/plant/committees/sphds [1]