Study valuing Australia’s biosecurity system at $314bn published

Known as the CEBRA Value Model, the study estimated that Australia’s biosecurity system is worth $314 billion in present value when modelled over 50 years.

This represents an average return of $30 for every dollar invested by the Australian Government. In other words, every dollar invested in biosecurity saves $30 in avoided damages.

The researchers estimated this by modelling the arrival, spread, and damages caused by forty classes of pests and diseases across Australia, both with and without a biosecurity system in place.

Since 2025, the Value of Biosecurity Model has been running on the DAFF computational platform and is being used by the DAFF Biosecurity Modelling Team, demonstrating the impact the project continues to deliver.

Professor Tom Kompas, Chief Investigator at CEBRA and a co-author of the report, said: “The 30 to one payoff in the average return on investment shows the substantial value gained from biosecurity measures in Australia.”

“Our results are yet another reminder that an effective biosecurity system is critical to Australia’s long-term prosperity,” Professor Kompas said.

Dr John Baumgartner, lead author of the study and Scientific Programmer as CEBRA, added: “This work demonstrates how Australia’s biosecurity system provides substantial public value by preventing harm caused by invasive pests and diseases.”

CEBRA is continuing its pioneering work into valuing Australia’s biosecurity system with a new focus on adding a number of different pests and the value of marine biosecurity to the model.

CEBRA is also helping make the model more computationally efficient and improving the representation of asset values across space as well as the way in which pests potentially spread and harm those values.

The study was published in The Journal of Environmental Management.