The ten-year term is real but narrow: it belongs to a single fault-based offence, importing prohibited or suspended goods to gain a commercial advantage over competitors under section 185(4) of the Biosecurity Act 2015. Below it the ladder falls quickly — five years for a serious approved-arrangement breach, and just 60 penalty units, handled by infringement notice, for routine industry slip-ups.
The headline millions are arithmetic, not law. The top tier is 5,000 penalty units. At the current $364 unit value, that’s $1.82 million. A forgotten apple at the airport starts at 2 units — $728.
In 2021, coverage of Australia’s biosecurity crackdown cited a top fine of $1.11 million. By 2023, the same offence was being reported at around $1.6 million. At the current unit value, the top of the ladder comes to $1.82 million. The Biosecurity Act 2015 never changed. What moved was the Commonwealth penalty unit — the multiplier that turns legislative ceilings into dollar amounts, re-indexed every few years.
That’s the part most coverage skips. The penalty isn’t a fixed price tag; it’s an equation. And the equation matters less than the path: how a routine infringement notice against a business climbs, offence by offence, into a criminal prosecution that can put an executive away for ten years.
Ask a customs officer about a traveller’s fine and you’ll get one answer. Ask about the commercial tier and you’ll get a different one — because the Act builds two separate ladders.
The fine isn’t a fixed number — it’s an equation
Read the Biosecurity Act 2015 and you won’t find $1.82 million anywhere. The statute sets ceilings in penalty units — an indexed unit created under section 4AA of the Crimes Act 1914 so Parliament doesn’t have to re-open every law each time inflation eats a fine. The top tier is 5,000 penalty units. What that costs in dollars depends entirely on when the offence was committed.
At the $222 unit value in force when the 2021 strengthening package was assessed, 5,000 units came to $1.11 million. From 1 July 2023 the unit rose to $313, pushing the same ceiling to $1,565,000 — the basis for those “roughly $1.6 million” headlines. The value now in force, $364 from 1 July 2026, makes the identical ceiling $1.82 million.
None of that is a legislative change to the penalty. It’s arithmetic — and why a biosecurity fine is a unit figure first.
Where a notice ends and a prosecution begins
The ladder starts where most businesses never expect to be: on the wrong side of an approved arrangement. For a biosecurity industry participant, the lowest rung is a strict-liability offence capped at 60 penalty units, created under DAFF’s 2023 industry advice. No intent needs to be shown, and enforcement leans on infringement notices rather than court — for the same reason parking tickets exist: speed.
Refuse to pay, or breach something riskier, and the mechanism changes. The department can seek a civil penalty order under Part 4 of the Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act 2014, proved on the balance of probabilities. Civil ceilings reach 1,200 penalty units for a concealed high-risk import and 1,000 units for an approved-arrangement breach — no imprisonment, but the money runs to six figures.
One more step up, and the case becomes criminal. Where a breach of an approved arrangement involves fault — intent, recklessness or negligence — section 428(2) carries 5 years’ imprisonment or 1,000 units, or both. At the top, section 185(4) carries the decade. The full ladder, including the corporate multiplier that can push company fines to five times an individual’s exposure, is below.
| Tier | Relevant provision | Maximum penalty units / imprisonment (individual) | Typical enforcement mechanism |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-the-spot traveller infringement | Biosecurity Act ss 126(2), 128(2), 532(1), 533(1); Biosecurity Regulation s 88 | 2, 6, 12 or 20 penalty units depending on risk category; no imprisonment from the notice itself | Administrative infringement notice at airport or seaport; unpaid notices may escalate to civil penalty proceedings |
| Civil penalty for concealed high-risk goods | Biosecurity Act s 186A(1) | 1,200 penalty units as a civil penalty; no imprisonment under this provision | Civil penalty order sought in a relevant federal court under Part 4 of the Regulatory Powers Act if infringement is not resolved |
| Strict-liability offence for approved-arrangement breach | Biosecurity Act s 428 (new strict-liability offences via 2023 DAFF measures) | 60 penalty units (biosecurity industry participant specific) | Infringement notice or prosecution for a strict-liability offence aimed at industry participants under approved arrangements |
| Fault-based offence for approved-arrangement breach | Biosecurity Act s 428(2) | Up to 1,000 penalty units or 5 years’ imprisonment, or both | Criminal prosecution in a federal court where intent, recklessness or negligence is proved; may be accompanied by civil penalties |
| Civil penalty for approved-arrangement breach | Biosecurity Act s 428(3) | Up to 1,000 penalty units as pecuniary penalty; no imprisonment | Civil penalty order under Part 4 of the Regulatory Powers Act; can follow from non-payment of infringement or direct civil action |
| Commercial-advantage offence – prohibited or suspended goods | Biosecurity Act s 185(4) | Up to 5,000 penalty units or 10 years’ imprisonment, or both (individual) | Fault-based criminal prosecution where breach both involves prohibited/suspended goods and confers or may confer market advantage |
| Commercial-advantage offence – import permit/conditions breach | Biosecurity Act s 186 (as aggravated by commercial advantage, per DAFF import-permit guidance) | Base offence 5 years’ imprisonment or 300 penalty units; aggravated commercial-advantage form up to 10 years and 2,000 penalty units | Criminal prosecution following investigation of non-permitted imports or condition breaches undertaken for competitive gain |
| Executive-officer civil liability | Biosecurity Act s 521 | Up to 120 penalty units for an executive officer where corporate contravention occurs through recklessness or negligence | Civil penalty proceedings against individual officers in addition to corporate penalties; no imprisonment under this civil provision |
| Corporate multipliers | Regulatory Powers Act Part 4; Biosecurity Act penalty tables | Up to 5× the individual penalty units for a body corporate in civil and criminal pecuniary penalties | Civil penalty orders or criminal fines against companies, scaled above individual maxima to reflect corporate capacity and deterrence |
| Source: Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF); Australian Legal Information Institute (AustLII); Parliament of Australia | |||
Read the top row against the bottom one, and the same Act that starts at 2 penalty units for a traveller’s undeclared apple ends at 10 years for a market-rigging importer. That gap turns on one word: fault.
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What actually opens the ten-year door
The decade-long sentence is narrower than “commercial biosecurity violation” suggests. Section 185(4) fires when someone imports prohibited or suspended goods — or conditionally non-prohibited goods in breach of their conditions — and that conduct gives, or could give, a market edge over competitors. The 2021 parliamentary materials put it in plain economics: breaches “for the purpose of, or which have the effect of, providing a person with a commercial advantage over law-abiding competitors.”
DAFF’s import-permit guidance points to the same conduct from a different angle: non-compliant import routes, or bypassing permit requirements to shift goods faster or cheaper than rivals, are commercial-advantage scenarios. Depending on the goods, the aggravated form reaches 10 years and between 2,000 and 5,000 penalty units.
Financial penalties aren’t the only consequence. The Act forbids issuing import permits retroactively once goods have landed, and DAFF can order non-compliant goods out of the country. For an approved arrangement, the Director of Biosecurity can suspend or revoke it after a show-cause notice — or immediately where the biosecurity risk is serious.
The long road from notice to conviction
The distance between a notice and a conviction is measured in standards of proof. For most breaches, DAFF works administratively: an infringement notice covers any of 55 listed provisions, and paying it discharges liability and bars civil proceedings on that same alleged breach. But where the department wants more than a fixed penalty, it has two doors. It can seek a civil penalty order in a federal court, decided on the balance of probabilities, or hand the file to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, who must prove a criminal case beyond reasonable doubt.
Director of Biosecurity v Chi, a 2024 Federal Court decision, shows the first door in action. Repeated imports of live fish accompanied by misleading documents drew pecuniary penalties of $37,000 and $17,000 against two respondents, according to AustLII‘s record of the case. The amounts are small against the maxima, but the court weighed seriousness, prior conduct and deterrence in fixing them. On the state side, a pastoral company that moved thousands of cattle without movement records was fined $45,000 for 22 offences, the heaviest penalty under Queensland’s 2014 Act at the time, ABC News reported.
The record is broader than fines. By March 2021, 40 prosecution referrals had been finalised: 28 ended in guilty outcomes. A seafood importer drew an $80,000 fine plus a conviction; a waste-management business signed a two-year enforceable undertaking instead of facing prosecution.
Which ladder you’re standing on
Most Western readers will never touch the commercial ladder. An undeclared apple or forgotten snack at the border draws an infringement notice, not a prosecution — minimum 2 penalty units, now $728, scaling to 20 units if goods were concealed, according to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry‘s airport guidance.
Shipping goods into Australia, selling into the country, or travelling with commercial samples or equipment pushes you into a different enforcement world. There, the approved-arrangement rules — and the executive-officer exposure that comes with them — are what keep compliance officers awake, not the traveller fine schedule.
When a headline throws a dollar figure at you, translate it back into penalty units first. The unit count is fixed by the Act; the dollar amount is just whatever the index says that week.
Questions? Answers.
How much is the fine for not declaring food in Australia?
Airport infringement notices start at 2 penalty units, which is $728 at the current $364 unit value, and rise to 6 or 12 units for higher-risk undeclared goods. The amount escalates to 20 units where conditionally non-prohibited goods were concealed.
What is the penalty for bringing seeds into Australia?
Seeds sit in the high-risk category, so failing to declare them can draw an infringement notice of up to 20 penalty units where they were concealed, and a civil penalty for concealed conditionally non-prohibited goods can reach 1,200 penalty units under section 186A. The ten-year tier applies only where importing prohibited or suspended goods is tied to a commercial advantage.
What are the items I can’t bring into Australia?
Items that are prohibited or suspended under the Biosecurity Act cannot be imported at all, and conditionally non-prohibited goods may only enter with a valid permit and compliance with its conditions. Import permits cannot be issued after the goods have already arrived, so attempting a no-permit import is itself an offence.
Does paying a biosecurity infringement notice count as an admission of guilt?
No. Paying a biosecurity infringement notice within the specified period is not an admission of guilt or liability, and it prevents civil penalty proceedings being brought on that same alleged contravention.
Can a commercial biosecurity breach lead to imprisonment, or only fines?
Yes. The top-tier commercial-advantage offence under section 185(4) carries a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment or 5,000 penalty units, or both. The Act’s civil penalty provisions cannot impose imprisonment, so fines-only outcomes belong to the civil tiers below the criminal offences.
