General Manager of the National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program, Graeme Dudgeon, told the 'Gatton Star' the Somerset Region in south east Queensland is close to being fire ant free because the program is into its third season of treatment. Fact: Five areas in the Somerset Region were infested by June 2018. Nine were infested by November 2018. Seventeen more areas in south east Queensland have become infested since the start of the $411m Ten Year Eradication Program 2017-18 to 2026-27. Fire ants are out of control in south-east Queensland. Fact: The Somerset Region was not targeted for ANY program activity (treatment, surveillance or containment) in the $411m Ten Year Eradication Program 2017-18 to 2026-27. Areas in the Scenic Rim and the Lockyer Valley that were targeted for treatment in 2017-18 and 2018-19 were under-treated. Biosecurity Queensland is holding a meeting in the Fernvale Community Hall at 5pm on Thursday 12 December to educate the operators of industries involved in building and construction work, haulage, earthmoving, landscaping, hay production, pool construction and turf farming on how they can mitigate their risk of spreading fire ants in potential fire ant carriers like soil, mulch, hay, turf and garden nursery products like pot plants. Biosecurity Queensland is in no position to educate anyone on how to mitigate their risk of spreading fire ants since they abrogated their own responsibility to do so by: • disbanding their use of Approved (Fire Ant) Risk Management Plans, • disbanding the large team of inspectors who helped businesses develop those plans, audited those plans and prosecuted those who did not comply, • not approving land development applications, • not controlling the movement of fire ant carriers in south-east Queensland and • not keeping their Fire Ant Biosecurity Zones map up to date. Mr Dudgeon said keeping the Somerset Region fire ant free is a ‘whole-of-community effort’ but the public is denied access to the 100% publicly funded meeting on 12 December in Fernvale. The public has been responsible for most community effort: identifying and reporting 70-80% of new infestations. The public is suffering most: most new infestations have been found in new development sites and housing estates, including in the Somerset Region. Why is the public denied access to this meeting about the National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program? Time for a Royal Commission to hold Biosecurity Queensland and Minister Mark Furner to account. 3rd December 2019
Biosecurity Queensland is holding a meeting about the National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program, a 100% publicly funded program, in the Fernvale Community Hall at 5pm on Thursday 12th December 2019, but the public is denied access.
Attendance at the meeting is by invitation only. I applied for an invitation and was told the meeting was specifically for ‘business operators from industries dealing with high risk fire ant carriers, local to the Somerset region, and therefore not open to the public.’ (emphasis mine).
Mr Graeme Dudgeon, General Manager of the National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program told the Gatton Star on 26th November 2019 that the Somerset Region in south-east Queensland was close to being fire ant free because the program was now in its third season of treatment and the purpose of the meeting was to educate the operators of industries involved in building and construction work, haulage, earthmoving, landscaping, hay production, pool construction and turf farming on how they can mitigate their risk of spreading fire ants in potential fire ant carriers like soil, mulch, hay, turf and garden nursery products like pot plants.
The fact is fire ants continue to spread in the Somerset region. By June 2018, Biosecurity Queensland had marked only the town of Marburg and the areas of Minden and Haigslea on the Fire Ant Biosecurity Zone map when, in fact, the area of Kensington Grove had become infested in March 2017 and the town of Lowood had become became infested in August 2017. By November 2018, the town of Fernvale and the areas of Brightview, Prenzlau, Borallon in the Somerset Region had all become infested with the super-pest which is the red imported fire ant.
The fact is the Somerset Region was not targeted for ANY program activity, (treatment, surveillance or containment) in the program’s $411m Ten Year Fire Ant Eradication Plan from 2017-18 to 2026-27. And parts of the Scenic Rim and Lockyer Valley regions that were targeted for treatment received less than half of their allocated amount in 2017-18 and the program was still trying to complete its 2017-18 schedule in 2018-19. Chronic under-treatment of fire ant infested areas is one of the reasons why the ants continue to spread.
The fact is fire ants continue to spread, out of control, north, south and west in south-east Queensland. Since the start of the $411m Ten Year Fire Ant Eradication Plan from 2017-18 to 2026-27, seventeen significant fire ant infestations have been found outside Biosecurity Queensland’s operations at Lowood, Beaudesert, Bridgeman Downs, three at Thornton, Blenheim, Labrador, Townson, two at Helensvale, the Brisbane Airport, Southport, Brendale, Boyland, Fernvale and Bromelton. The fire ant infestation now covers over 500,000ha: up from around 40,000ha in 2002.
The fact, Biosecurity Queensland is in no position to educate anyone on how to mitigate their risk of spreading fire ants having abrogated their own responsibility for doing so.
Industry and community representatives at a stake-holders forum in May 2018, said they were happy to accept their General Biosecurity Obligation, under the Biosecurity Act 2014, to be responsible for taking all reasonable precautions to ensure they don’t spread fire ants. But they also want Biosecurity Queensland to accept its own responsibility for doing so by:
Instead Mr Dudgeon intends to wield the big stick at the meeting on the 12th December and threaten business operators and individuals with the new enforcement penalties if they move fire ant carriers from or within fire ant biosecurity zones.
The Fire Ant Biosecurity Zones map is eighteen months out of date and it has been illegal to move a potential fire ant carrier since 2002. To date, as far as I am aware, Biosecurity Queensland has issued just two infringement notices in eighteen years. Who is going to take General Manager Graeme Dudgeon seriously?
Mr Dudgeon told the Gatton Star that keeping the Somerset region fire ant free is a ‘whole-of-community effort’, but is denying the public access to its meeting on 12th December. The program is 100% publicly funded. The public has put in the most effort in containing the spread of fire ants: identifying and reporting 70-80% of new infestations. And the public are the ones who suffer the most. Most new infestation are in new development sites and new housing estates, including those in the Somerset Region.
Time for a Royal Commission to hold Biosecurity Queensland, the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and Minister Mark Furner to account for a fire ant infestation that is out of control and the waste of $500m of public money.