Aggressive, venomous red fire ants have the potential to be a threat in even Australia’s biggest cities and require a multimillion-dollar, 10-year program to wipe them out before it’s too late, agriculture ministers were warned in May.
An independent review into the ant, which is of South American extraction, prepared for a meeting of federal state and territory agriculture ministers in May but made public this week through the Senate, calls for a doubling of funding to $38m a year for 10 years to eliminate the scourge for good.
The report explains that the ants, which have the potential to overwhelm prey much larger than themselves with colonies totalling millions, are a “pest of national significance,” concluding that there is only a “small window” left to hold back the march from south-east Queensland, where they first emerged in 2001 after being introduced from South America.
“One of the greatest challenges of this long-term eradication program has been the absence of a secure funding window,” it states, concluding that there is a “compelling” case for “unified national action”.
The Invasive Species Council (ISC), a conservation group focused on the impact of what they call “one of the worst invasive species in the world”, agrees that time is nearly up before a “silent invasion” millions of Australians will be forced to live with permanently.
“They are a real and present danger to the way we live our lives,” they wrote in their response to the report. “Australia faces a national emergency if federal and state funding of the country’s red fire ant eradication program is not fully funded.”
ISC’s chief executive, Andrew Cox, added that there was a false perception that major population centres south of the Tweed were not at risk after and outbreak in Port Botany was successfully dealt with earlier this year. “Sydney think the fire ant is gone, the, but in actual fact they’re waiting on their doorstep,” he told Guardian Australia.
“If this eradication is not properly funded, Sydney will get them, Melbourne will get them, Perth will get them, everywhere will get them. You won’t be able to escape them if we miss this small window of opportunity. We’ll only get one shot at this and now is the time.”
Their assessment is 95% of Australia is climactically suitable for fire ants to prosper, and the heavily populated coastal belt is most vulnerable. Cox said that children in particular were exposed to fatal risks by the venom, which had the potential to bring on anaphylactic shock. The report cites 80 Americans having died in this way.
“You don’t know if they [children] are going to be allergic until they get bitten, so you can’t just put a rug on the grass and lay down without looking around to see if fire ants are there.”
The report says the worst effects have been stalled through action over 15 years since the fire ant first emerged in Australia. Infestations in the Port of Brisbane in 2005, in Gladstone in 2007, and this year in Gladstone again and Port Botany were all eradicated. Yet the contaminated area still has grown to 450,000 hectares, the size of the Australian Capital Territory.
The report’s chairman, Bill Magee, is urging decision makers to take a long-term view of the funding it recommends to ensure that concentration is reduced.
“The review sets out a compelling case, it is set out with objective evidence, drawn upon the international experience,” he said. “We have the tools to do it, and it is purely a question of the money and willpower.”
When ministers were first given this report in May, they were told that the potential costs for total national inaction could be up to $45bn. By mid-2015 governments had spent $330m on the program over 15 years, but that outlay has not been at the $38m per annum level asked for in the report since 2003-04, totalling $18.6m in the current financial year.
Cox said governments had “limped along” with year-to-year funding over the past six years. “Even the fact that they have delayed a year to make the decision from when they got the report in May until when they meet to decide whether they endorse extra funding, it is already going to reduce the chances of success.”
The federal agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, confirmed his support for the recommendations in the report on Thursday, noting that this year’s ministerial council meeting agreed to the findings. The Queensland, Victorian and New South Wales governments all reiterated their backing.
Cox said he hoped the report wold generate greater public awareness. “When you get bitten by fire ants in Sydney when it is too late don’t come saying we should spend some money on it, because it’ll be too late then – this is the time.”
