Lack of proper funding is hindering efforts to contain the spread of invasive fire ants by Australian authorities, according to documents obtained by the Invasive Species Council.
The documents show a stark contrast between the original $133m plan to fully eradicate the ants and an $89m “revised work plan” to continue for the next 12 months. This revised plan would only treat half the area needed, even as the ants continue their southward march towards New South Wales.
Under the original plan, authorities would have carried out an eradication program of surveillance and treatment, including establishing a 10km horseshoe around the entire fire ant infestation, including the Moreton Bay, Somerset Regional, Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim and Gold Coast council areas.
However under the revised plan, work will take place only across a 5km strip in the Scenic Rim and Gold Coast council areas south of Brisbane, with no systematic eradication program taking place in other council areas.
Additionally, the surveillance target will be reduced from 17% to 8% of the area with only a limited public awareness and compliance campaign to be carried out. Treatment rounds on the Gold Coast will also be reduced from three to two.
A strategic review warned almost two years ago that an “urgent change of strategy” was needed to prevent the uncontrolled spread of the species in Australia.
The review advised authorities that “to achieve local eradication in a suburb or sub-regional area, treatment of three rounds of IGR bait per year across two consecutive years is required (six rounds total), with no gaps in treatment in any round”.
Reece Pianta of the Invasive Species Council said the window to properly address the problem was “rapidly closing” and if the ants were to reach New South Wales it would become much harder to contain the problem and increase the risk of a “nightmare scenario” where they reached the Murray-Darling Basin area.
“This is the result of bureaucratic penny-pinching,” Pianta said. “We know governments are committed but what we suspect is bureaucratic hold-ups are delaying the money from reaching the ground where it’s required.
“We think that historically the fire ant program has sought the amount of money they thought they could get and not the amount of money they needed.
“That’s led to a situation where the ants have been contained, they’ve been slowed but they haven’t been eradicated. Which is the only way to protect Australia from the worst impacts.”
At a meeting of agricultural ministers in July, all governments committed to an eradication plan that would contain the spread but failed to reach a funding agreement for future work.
The ministers aren’t expected to sign off on a new national strategy to tackle fire ants until next year, after the states prepare each of their individual budgets.
So far only Queensland and NSW have committed their share of funding for the program. Queensland has pledged $61m and NSW has set aside $95m, for 26.3% of the total needed to properly fund the work.
The Invasive Species Council says the “dithering and delay” means the problem will only grew worse and dealing with it, more expensive.
The venomous insect, which can inflict a painful bite on humans and colonise vast areas, has infested much of south-east Queensland after it was first detected in 2001.
