Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, , 9:11:18 to 9:14:30
Senator Roberts questions the effectiveness of the national fire ant eradication program, raising concerns about whether broadcast baiting might inadvertently assist the spread of the pest.
Topics: Biosecurity, Agricultural productivity, Land management
Speakers: Speaker 35, Justine Saunders, Unknown Speaker, Senator Glenn Sterle, Senator Ross Cadell
>> So, 6:30.
>> Okay. Thanks, Chair.
>> I can make it 6:30 if you want.
>> Thank you for fearing tonight. >> Fire ants. >> They continue to spread throughout Queensland despite information put out by the fire ant eradication program. To the contrary, we all want fire ants managed effectively and the push for further eradication funding requires proper scrutiny of the scientific evidence, the results of the program and the environmental costs of the eradication methods. And my understanding is there are four steps to to um bio security. One is prevention that's passed. It's failed. Another is um containment uh eradication. That's failing. Then the next is containment. That may or may not be working, but it seems to be spreading. So containment's not working. The ne the next one is mitigation of the effects or managing the assets. Is that correct? >> Four steps.
>> I wouldn't characterize that way center, but I'm following the thread of your
comments. Professor Nigel Andrew and Professor Professor Joshua King wrote a paper this year that considered that the title broadcast baiting may ultimately help fire ants spread not eradicate them. Has Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry considered the ramifications of this expensive program that may be spreading fire ants instead
know, and we've given evidence on this issue several times, uh, we continually review the efficacy of the program that Queensland is leading, and we have confidence on the program's ability to eradicate the risk of Red and Porter
>> So, the containment zone is no longer a containment zone. It's breached. It's expanding. Northern New South Wales over the Great Dividing Range into Oki.
>> No, that's not how we've characterized it, Senator. The containment zone stands strong and in fact is contracting as intended. But as we would always expect in these circumstances knowing this is a big area that we're covering that there would occasionally be spillover outside of that containment zone would see detections that has occurred and where that's occurred red and fires have been eradicated.
>> There's been massive funding for a fire and eradication. Correct. Massive.
>> There's been a significant investment by all jurisdictions.
>> Yeah. Over well over a billion dollars. >> that's correct. But there are also environmental impacts. If eradication is no longer viable, and people in southeast Queensland are saying it's not, and I would tend to agree, isn't the better approach to manage known infestations rather than spread toxic chemicals where there are no fire ants to the detriment
valleys in Brisbane. We've got whole
spreading bait and toxins and there's no
fire ants. center. We have done the modeling in regards to the cost of eradication versus a transition to management. If we were to manage this, the cost would be significantly more than the cost of eradication.
>> Modeling is fine, but they're actually baiting in areas with no fires and areas where we know they don't live. Senator,
for the effect for for the program to be um effective, all all parts of the of the of the containment zone or eradication zone need to be treated.