A petition to state parliament has claimed “grave concerns” about the national fire ant eradication program and called for “an urgent reassessment” on environmental grounds.
The petition, attracted 2740 signatures and claims the program has breached the Environmental Protection Act “by conducting the world’s largest eradication experiment in the absence of any Australian-based Environmental Risk Assessment.”
The petition says the program is an expensive failure which may be worse in its toxic effects than the ants themselves.
“The effect of repeated broadscale application of pesticides (one unregistered and one under investigation) on the environment and humans remains unknown,” it says.
“It is impossible to assert that the risk of fire ants exceeds the environmental risk of repeated pesticide application.”
“Despite 23 years and more than $1 billion taxpayer dollars, net infestation has not been reduced by even one acre.
“Experts believe eradication is now impossible,” the petition says.
“The Biosecurity Act 2014 undermines property rights, permitting forced entry and application of toxic chemicals by the NFAEP onto private properties, increasingly causing distress and fear as the Program rolls out (with) no end point.”
The petition calls for parliament to “immediately pause the (program), commission a comprehensive Environmental Risk Assessment on the effects of broadscale long-term use of fire ant baits on human and environmental health and to shift from eradication to a suppression program.”
It calls for action to restrict hazardous material movement to contain the fire ant spread.
It also calls for “authorised officers to treat private properties only where a biosecurity threat is evidenced on the property whilst accommodating owners’ concerns.”
The petition has been referred to Primary Industries Minister and Gympie MP Tony Perrett, who contradicted the claims in the 7 March issue of Gympie Today.
In an extensive interview reporting on his first five months in office, Mr Perrett rejected concerns that the fire ant cure may be worse than the disease, including that it made widespread use of forever poisons, including near waterways and that the battle was a multi-million waste of time because it could not be won.
“We’re determined to eradicate fire ants. We can’t afford not to,” he said.
“Fire ants will kill a bee hive and that affects not only the honey industry but all the crops that depend on pollination.”
The ants are now spreading in this direction, with one infestation found at North Arm, a short drive from the Gympie region boundary.
“Fire ants are the problem, not the fight against them,” Mr Perrett said
They would affect many aspects of “life as we know it,” including colonising sporting fields, local parks and back yards.
Livestock and wildlife can be affected, he said, as well as tourism if the ants establish themselves in sand dunes and attack people at the beach.
If that happens it would also affect the tourist industry’s reputation, he said.
The fire ant issue is accompanied by news that the invasive bee pest, varroa mite, has been detected in Queensland and is here for keeps, authorities now switching from eradication to “management.”
