Dr Wendy Craik , Chair of the Steering Committee of Biosecurity Queensland’s National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program, and responsible for the $411.4m Ten Year Eradication Plan (2017-27) said ‘After three years of intensive treatment in the Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim and parts of Ipswich, fire ant eradication is now moving east into parts of greater Ipswich and western Logan.’ Facts. In December 2019, an independent review said the Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim and parts of Ipswich had received significantly less treatment than scheduled, data coming from Biosecurity Queensland monitoring sites showing that fire ants have been eradicated was questionable and there is no scientific basis for the program’s west to east treatment strategy. It is a policy decision to prioritise farmland in the west over cities in the east. Ipswich, Gold Coast and Logan cities are now heavily infested and the infestation in the west continues to spread. 600,000ha of south-east Queensland is now infested - fifteen times worse than when fire ants were detected in 2001. The $411.4m Ten Year Fire Ant Eradication Program Workplan (2017-27), signed off by Dr Craik in 2017, is running one year late. Greater Ipswich and western Logan were scheduled to start receiving two years of intensive treatment in July 2019. Broadscale, post-treatment helicopter surveillance of the Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim and parts of Ipswich, to declare those areas fire ant free, was scheduled to start in July 2019. Helicopter surveillance is unlikely to happen. A feasibility study said helicopter mounted thermal imaging cameras could not tell the difference between warm fire ant nests and warm rocks and cow pats. The independent review in December 2019 was scathing of the ability of the National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program Steering Committee, chaired by Dr Craik, to ensure the proper use of public money and an effective eradication program. Time for a Royal Commission. 3rd September 2020
Dr Wendy Craik, Chair of the National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program Steering Committee, and responsible for its $411.4m Ten Year Eradication Plan (2017-27), said ‘After three years of intensive treatment in the Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim and parts of Ipswich, fire ant eradication is now moving east into parts of greater Ipswich and western Logan.’
Facts
The Effectiveness and Efficiency Audit of the program, commissioned by the Steering Committee in December 2019, said, in 2017, the program’s operational boundary blew out by 78,000ha, a 21% increase, and the Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim and parts of Ipswich received significantly less than the three rounds of treatment they were scheduled to receive in both 2017-18 and 2018-19.
The reviewer said there is no scientific basis for the program’s west to east treatment strategy. It was a policy decision to prioritise the rapidly expanding infestation into the farm-land of the Lockyer Valley over the persistent and intensifying infestations in the cities to the east: Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Redlands and the Gold Coast. In 2017-18 Biosecurity Queensland abandoned spot treatments of persistent infestations in the eastern cities because it was swamped with reports of nests from the public. By May 2019, Biosecurity Queensland has a backlog of around 9000 untreated fire ant nests across Brisbane, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Logan, Redlands cities and the Scenic Rim region.
The reviewer said data coming out of Biosecurity Queensland’s fire ant monitoring sites in the Lockyer Valley and Scenic Rim, suggesting that fire ants have been eradicated, is questionable because Biosecurity Queensland’s choice of monitoring sites and data collection methods have never been independently assessed.
Dr Craik signed off on the program’s $411.4m Workplan for 2017-27 in 2017 and is responsible for the program running one year late. She said ‘eradication’ treatment (simply meaning intensive versus spot treatment – no guarantee of eradication) was now moving into greater Ipswich city and western Logan city. Two years of treatment of those areas was scheduled to start in July 2019 and be completed by June 2021.
Broadscale post-treatment surveillance of the Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim and parts of Ipswich by helicopters mounted with thermal imaging cameras, to declare those areas fire ant free, was scheduled to begin in July 2019. It is now a year late, and not likely to happen at all. Biosecurity Queensland abandoned remote-sensing surveillance for fire ants in 2014 after it identified millions of rocks and cow pats and missed actual nests. A feasibility study commissioned by Biosecurity Queensland in 2018 said the technology cannot distinguish fire ant nests from rocks and cow pats which emit the same thermal image.
In December 2019, the independent reviewer was scathing of the ability of the National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program Steering Committee, chaired by Dr Craik, to ensure the proper use of public money and an effective eradication program. The reviewer said the Steering Committee needed to separate itself from program management and to start acting like a Board of Management and respond to the program’s long-standing issues by managing the budget blow-out, developing outcome focussed performance indicators, improving operations on the ground and improving its own performance by approving plans and reporting to funders in a timely manner, meeting frequently enough to address significant issues, have the expertise to address those issues and initiate a review if those issues mean the program can no longer achieve its objectives.
Time for a Royal Commission.