28 Jan 2024
To keep national funding flowing into Queensland, without a scrap of performance data, Queensland Minister for Agriculture, Mark Furner, claims fire ants would be investing Canberra by now without the 22year old Fire Ant Eradication Program. Shame!
Read MoreIndependent reviews continually report the National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication program has never collected reliable and consistent performance data. It has no evidence to support any claims of success. The fact is the fire ant infestation has increased at a steady rate from 40,000ha in 2001 to 650,000ha by the end of 2019. The program...
Read MoreIt’s never been feasible to eradicate fire ants. They were too well entrenched. We sacrificed an opportunity to contain and suppress them to chase after the last ant to kill it. Money wasted on jobs creation programs in Queensland and throwing good bait and good money after bad by under-treating the infestation. The fire ant infestation is...
Read More• In 2003, I made a public interest disclosure to the Crime and Misconduct Commission that the fire ant program was over-stating its success and not reporting the serious issues threatening it. They rejected my claim. Mr Dudgeon is the latest program manager to continue the practice. He told Steve Austin ABC radio Brisbane on 31 July 2019 the p...
Read MoreQUT News. Isla Stanich reports. A major fire ant baiting program is now underway in south-east Queensland. Dr Pam Swepson says Biosecurity Queensland should have focussed on containing the species in 2001. The Queensland government promised to eradicate fire ants to bring Commonwealth money into Queensland. The infestation is now ten ti...
Read More'Mornings' with Steve Austin ABC radio Brisbane Friday 1st December 2017 Interviews with Pam Swepson: former fire ant program policy officer who became a whistle-blower over the mismanagement of the fire ant program and Beth Woods, Director-General, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries which runs the fire ant program.
Read MoreBungling by successive Queensland governments has seen the war on the red fire ant lost and hundreds of millions of dollars wasted. Dr Pam Swepson, who worked on the National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program from its inception in 2002 for three years, has told the QT “the war against fire ants was lost at the beginning” and continu...
Read MoreA report has estimated that if fire ants are not wiped out in Australia they could be responsible for up to 3000 anaphylactic reactions each year. An independent review, or a supposedly independent review, has warned that the window of opportunity to eradicate the red fire ant is closing. You would know that this pest was imported into Queensland i...
Read MoreQueensland Country Life journalist Lucy Ziesemer wrote on 21 September 2016: 'Debate flares: The Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries remains adamant its fire ant eradication program is on track. Readers would be forgiven for expressing surprise and disbelief at the notion of Queensland's fire ant infestation being out of control, ...
Read MoreSteve Austin: How do you feel about spending $350m to solve a problem only to see it become ten times worse. That’s what the State Government has done with public money for the Fire Ant Eradication Program. Obviously, they haven’t eradicated anything. Today, Estimates hearings commence at State Parliament: the means by which MPs examine how pub...
Read MoreAn interview with Terri Begley from ABC Radio about fireant issues in Queensland.
Read MoreThe war against deadly fire ants could be lost amid claims the $250 million program to eradicate the pest has been badly mismanaged.
Read MoreQueensland launched a war against the fire ant invasion, but 12 years later, they’re still on the march.
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