15 Feb 2019

Biosecurity Queensland blows its $41m Fire Ant Program budget for 2018-19 in 7 months: 3 months before the end of the treatment season. Time for a Royal Commission.

The first year of Biosecurity Queensland’s new Ten Year Fire Ant Eradication Program, 2017-18, was a disaster. Only one round of bait instead of three over most of the area targeted for treatment: a waste of $38m. The second year of the Ten Year Program, 2018-19, is worse. The program has blown its budget of $41m after just seven months: three m...

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07 Feb 2019

GM of Biosecurity Queensland's fire ant program tried to shut down criticism at a community forum in Gatton with a 'divide and conquer' format. They didn't let him.

A key strategy of Biosecurity Queensland’s new $411m Ten Year Fire Ant Eradication Program is to foster collaboration with the public. The General Manager of the Fire Ant Program came to a Community Forum in Gatton, in the Lockyer Valley, on the evening of 5th February with the clear intention of shutting down any criticism of the Program with hi...

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21 Jan 2019

Biosecurity Queensland’s chaotic management of the fire ant program in the Lockyer Valley alienates farmers and staff and breaches the Biosecurity Act

A Key Strategy of Biosecurity Queensland’s new $411.4m Ten Year Fire Ant Program is to collaborate with landowners. Biosecurity Queensland’s chaotic management of the program in the Lockyer Valley, south-east Queensland’s food bowl, does more to alienate farmers than gain their cooperation. Field staff, as ‘authorised persons’ under ...

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