The National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program is an utter failure. It has cost $500m so far. The infestation is more than twelve times what it was when fire ants were first detected in south-east Queensland in 2001. Biosecurity Queensland has dumped the costs and responsibilities for finding fire ants, killing fire ants and containing their spread onto the public. Yet Biosecurity Queensland keeps the $42.5m annual national funding to run the program. Why? Biosecurity Queensland recently dumped the costs and responsibility for killing fire ants onto the public. Biosecurity Queensland recently trained private pest management companies to treat fire ant nests. It is now advertising the services of 147 private pest management companies on their website. Private companies can treat fire ant nests, at the landowners’ expense: with no guarantee from Biosecurity Queensland those treatments will kill fire ants and not cause nests to spread further. Biosecurity Queensland dumped the costs and responsibility for finding fire ants onto the public years ago when it stopped systematically surveying the boundaries of the fire infestation. The public have reported 70% of new infestations, but significant fire ant infestations are routinely found beyond the program’s operational area because Biosecurity Queensland does not conduct systematic surveillance. Biosecurity Queensland dumped the costs and responsibility for containing the spread of fire ants onto the public years ago. It disbanded its large team of Biosecurity Inspectors who helped high risk businesses develop risk management plans. Instead it imposed a legal General Biosecurity Obligation on the public living and working in biosecurity zones not to spread fire ants. This is impossible for many people to know because the current Fire Ant Biosecurity Zone Map does not include all fire ant infested areas. Consequently, fire ants continue to re-infest areas that have been treated multiple times. The National Fire Ant Eradication Program has failed. Biosecurity Queensland has dumped the costs and responsibility for finding, killing and containing the spread of fire ants onto the public. Yet Biosecurity Queensland continues to receive annual funding of $42.5m, plus $3m for contingencies from the Commonwealth and other State and Territory governments. Why? Time for a Royal Commission.
The $500m (so far) National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program is an utter failure. The $400m fire ant program from 2001-2016 was a failure and its successor, the $411m 2017-27 program is also a failure.
The infestation in south-east Queensland is more than twelve times what it was when fire ants were first detected in 2001. Fire ants are continually found outside the operational area of the program. Fire ants are continually re-infesting areas that have been treated multiple times.
The fire ant program has to do three things: find fire ants, kill fire ants and contain their spread. Biosecurity Queensland has dumped the costs and responsibilities for all key elements of the program onto the public: yet keeps the annual budget of $42.5m, plus $3m for contingencies, from the Commonwealth and other State and Territory governments. Why?
Killing fire ants
Biosecurity Queensland has now dumped the responsibility and costs of treating fire ant nests onto the public. Biosecurity Queensland says the program is offering south-east Queenslanders the option to self-manage fire ants by using a private pest management company, trained by the program, at their own expense. Biosecurity Queensland is now advertising the services of 147 private pest management companies, operating between Toowoomba, the Gold Coast and Moreton Bay in south-east Queensland on their website. Biosecurity Queensland does not guarantee those services will kill fire ants and not cause nests to split and spread.
Biosecurity Queensland is developing a policy to allow landowners to treat their own properties at their own expense and at their own risk. The risk is not all landowners will pay for expensive fire ant baits but will resort to some of the many crazy, ineffective, dangerous but cheap methods for treating fire ant nest that are on the internet.
Nevertheless, Biosecurity Queensland keeps the annual budget of $42.5m budget, with a $3m for contingencies, from the Commonwealth and other States and Territories.
Finding fire ants
Biosecurity Queensland dumped the costs and responsibility for finding fire ants onto the public years ago. Biosecurity Queensland has still not defined or delimited the extent of the infestation because it does not systematically survey the outer edges of the known infestation. Biosecurity Queensland relies on a vigilant public to detect and report fire ant nests. 70% of new detections have been made by a vigilant public, but this is not a replacement for systematic surveillance. Consequently, significant infestations of fire ants are routinely found beyond the operational areas of the program.
Nevertheless, Biosecurity Queensland keeps the annual budget of $42.5m budget, with a $3m for contingencies, from the Commonwealth and other States and Territories.
Stopping fire ants from spreading
Biosecurity Queensland dumped the costs and responsibility for containing the spread of fire ants onto the public years ago when it disbanded its large team of Biosecurity Inspectors that identified businesses that dealt in fire ant carriers like soil, turf, mulch, hay, compost, potted plants etc, worked with those businesses to develop Approved Risk Management Plans, audited those plans and prosecuted those who did not comply.
The Plant Protection Regulation of 2002 made it illegal to move a live fire ants or fire ant carrier from an infested property without an inspector’s approval, but, in seventeen years, there has only ever been one prosecution for illegally moving a fire ant carrier.
Biosecurity Queensland dumped the costs and responsibility for containing the spread of fire ants onto the public when it created the General Biosecurity Obligation in the Biosecurity Act 2014. People and organisations living or working in Fire Ant Biosecurity Zones have a legal obligation to take all reasonable precautions to ensure they don’t spread fire ants. They can be penalised if they don’t. But the public cannot know if they live or work in a Fire Ant Biosecurity Zone, because the current Fire Ant Biosecurity Zone Map, dated 15 June 2018, does not include all areas of the infestation: including, among others, infestations in Thornton in the Lockyer Valley, Fernvale in the Somerset region, Bracken Ridge in north Brisbane, Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast, Beaudesert in the Scenic Rim and Labrador on the Gold Coast. Consequently dozens of new housing estates and major development sites in south-east Queensland are now infested with fire ants.
Nevertheless, Biosecurity Queensland keeps the annual budget of $42.5m budget, with a $3m for contingencies, from the Commonwealth and other States and Territories.
The National Fire Ant Eradication Program has failed. Biosecurity Queensland has dumped the costs and responsibility for finding, killing and containing the spread of fire ants onto the public. Yet Biosecurity Queensland continues to receive annual funding of $42.5m, plus $3m for contingencies, from the Commonwealth and other State and Territory governments. Why?
Time for Royal Commission.