Using behaviour science to maintain resilience of Queensland’s biosecurity system

Abstract

Across our biosecurity system, we have limited data to predict people’s attitudes to biosecurity, their likely behaviours, whether they feel empowered to act and whether our messaging is effective.
There has been a seismic shift in how news is broadcast and how people consume information and opinions, in real time. Online continues to explode and social media audiences crave real stories, on their mobile devices, 24X7. Competition to connect with, and influence, an audience will continue to become more intense.
During the development of the Queensland Biosecurity Strategy 2018-2013, stakeholders unanimously agreed “Every Queenslander must play their part” and the first area of focus must be a “clear understanding of the beliefs, attitudes, intentions and behaviors of key players in the biosecurity system’ to provide the evidence-base to guide future policy, project decision making and engagement strategies.
Biosecurity Queensland is tackling this issue with the development of a Behavioural Insights Framework.
Globally, there has been significant shift over the last decade on how to segment and understand the behavioural drivers of stakeholders in the agricultural sector. We will articulate key insights from this research and provide a way forward for application in the Queensland setting.
We will hone in on outcomes from behavioural research projects to understand goals, drivers, objectives and characteristics of stakeholders in a response setting, and its application to grow our social media channels and stakeholder interaction within these channels.
This year, we are validating the international research in Queensland with two projects to provide an evidence-base for future policy and project decision making:
• Baseline survey of stakeholders and their attitudes and behaviours towards their General Biosecurity Obligation.
• Detailed stakeholder segmentation analysis of farmers in Queensland
We will share early learnings from this research and identify opportunities for others to benefit.