Weeds and pests invasion imminent without tighter controls: Senate inquiry
09 Dec 2004
The Federal Senate Inquiry report on invasive species, tabled in Parliament yesterday, highlights serious cracks in national and State laws on invasive weeds and pests which must be urgently fixed, according to WWF-Australia. Invasive species are a huge $4.7 billion per year national problem which needs a far stronger national solution.
"Australia is still lumbered with poor border controls, and mis-matching State and Territory laws that result in many of the world's most dangerous invasive species being legally imported and traded," Andreas Glanznig, WWF's Biodiversity Policy Manager said. "This includes many of the world's worst agricultural and environmental weeds."
WWF-Australia calls on the Australian Government to show leadership and act to:
- Stop playing Russian Roulette by permitting the legal import of nearly half of all plant species on Earth not yet in Australia, including 4,000 known weeds - with absolutely no risk assessment.
Biosecurity Australia must implement a comprehensive solution which ensures all proposed imports of any of the over 125,000 plant species not yet in Australia is subject to a rigorous risk assessment.
A piece-meal effort to remove only the 4,000 known weeds will result in new and costly weeds being imported - a number of the other 121,000 plants could also be major weeds. - Put in place a national system of invasive species laws with the States and Territories. This can be achieved by the Australian Government implementing national regulations to control invasive species combined with States and Territories agreeing to implement Model State Legislation.
- Develop nationally coordinated early warning and rapid response programs. New Zealand has a National Ant Surveillance Program which systematically checks high risk areas such as ports. It recently found a new infestation of red imported fire ant in Napier in situ for less than a year and now will cost $1.5 million to eradicate. Australia has no coordinated national early warning program in place for ants, and the fire ant infestation in Brisbane and Ipswich was belatedly found a decade after invasion - it will now cost $175 million to eradicate.
"Australia has an unique opportunity to put smart, coordinated national invasive species policies and laws in place now that the National Weed Strategy is being revised and a national pest animal strategy is in development. It's too rare an opportunity to miss out on a major overhaul of national policies on invasive species. Without tougher policies the Australian economy and environment is open to increasing invasions by dangerous weeds and pests," Mr Glanznig said.
Contact
Andreas Glanznig, Biodiversity Policy Manager 0417 020 174
