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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-07-27 Daily Xml
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NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE: INVASIVE SPECIES INQUIRY

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (15:59): I move:

That the 57th report of the committee, on the Invasive Species Inquiry, be noted.

I preface my remarks by indicating that the preparation of this report predated my becoming a member of the committee; however, I am more than happy to endorse the report and commend those who have contributed to it. This is a report on the committee's inquiry into invasive species in South Australia. This inquiry was first suggested by the former member for Stuart, Natural Resources Committee member and West Coast farmer, the Hon. Graham Gunn MP back in 2009. Initial hearings in mid to late 2010 coincided with the outbreak of a mouse plague on Eyre Peninsula and a locust plague in the North-East of the state.

Recent rains in South Australia and around the nation have heralded a welcome end to one of the worst droughts in Australia's history. However, there is also a flip side: while floods were inundating parts of South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, the same rains were also providing a boost to pest plants and animals, including weeds, feral cats, mice, rabbits, cane toads and camels.

This inquiry revealed a wealth of community knowledge about invasive species, as well as a strong commitment to tackling them. Committee members were particularly impressed by the hard work volunteers put into combating weeds and pest animals in order to protect endangered species. Volunteers are often the first line of defence against new invasive species. Without this volunteer labour force and expertise South Australia would be much worse off.

Despite the overwhelming challenges, volunteers like Ron Taylor devote significant portions of their lives to the ongoing battle against invasive species. In the words of Mr Taylor:

I have been over on my West Coast property dealing with one of the worst weed infestations I have seen since I have owned it. I have come back and, instead of doing my normal weed management here as a volunteer, I was asked immediately by the Department to go out and start slashing areas on the coastline because of a lack of budget by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. I was even yesterday out there for nearly nine hours slashing wild oat that was two metres high.

Mr Taylor works about 100 hours a week volunteering and has been doing so for about 18 years, and for this I would like to thank him, together with all the other dedicated natural resource management volunteers who do so much for our state. I would also like to quote another volunteer who gave evidence at this inquiry. In the words of Margaret Wilksch, Mount Barker councillor and long-time Landcare volunteer:

I am really concerned, and I have been for many years, about the weed situation, particularly in the high rainfall areas. It appears to me to actually be an increasing problem, whereas it should be a reducing problem…in the last three to five years, maybe it is the global warming, weeds seem to be having a better environment and growing worse than they were before.

As someone who lives in the Adelaide Hills, I can certainly understand what the councillor is saying. On the subject of weeds, the CSIRO has estimated that escaped garden plant species account for 94 per cent of all naturalised weeds in Australia. The CSIRO reports that garden escapees comprise 69 per cent of the 954 listed agricultural weeds and 72 per cent of the 1,765 listed environmental weeds. Unsurprisingly, this phenomenon is often cited as a good argument for using indigenous species in home gardens.

Indigenous species have significant benefits for gardens. For example, the excellent and much sought-after Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges NRM Board's Coastal Gardens: A Planting Guide describes local species as low maintenance, drought tolerant and providing good habitat for indigenous fauna, including birds, butterflies and lizards. The South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) Entomology has also published an excellent guide to using native plants on the Northern Adelaide Plains to benefit horticulture, highlighting their role in displacing and suppressing weeds and supporting populations of beneficial insects, thus reducing the need for pesticides.

However, while indigenous and native plants are fantastic, it is also apparent that in many places around the state our natural environment is so modified that it would be clearly impractical and undesirable to try to return it to any kind of pristine or pre-European state. Ecologist Mark Davis wrote recently in the June edition of Nature that, 'Increasingly, the practical value of the nature versus alien species dichotomy in conservation is declining' and that, while the bias against alien species still exists:

Today's management approaches must recognise that the natural systems of the past are changing for ever thanks to drivers such as climate change, nitrogen eutrophication, increased urbanisation and other land use changes.

Professor Davis suggests that:

It is time for scientists, land managers and policy makers to ditch this pre-occupation with the native-alien dichotomy and embrace more dynamic and pragmatic approaches to conservation and management of species—approaches better suited to our fast changing planet.

Professor Davis points out that, while some alien species damage ecosystems, many others do not and, in fact, native or indigenous species can be just as problematic in rapidly changing environments.

In line with this perspective, committee members heard about the negative impacts of overabundant native species such as wombats, koalas, kangaroos, emus and some forms of unpalatable vegetation (for example, the sticky hop bush, Dodonaea viscosa) can have, particularly on grazing lands. This is in contrast, for example, to introduced species such as the freshwater crayfish marron (Cherax cainii) from Western Australia, or the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) from Victoria on Kangaroo Island. These species are considered benign in that environment, even though they do not belong there in a strictly ecological or historical sense.

Invasive species are widespread in South Australia 175 years after South Australia's first European settlement was established in Kingscote. While combating invasive species is often portrayed as a battle, it is a battle that can never be won. Faced with a clearly impossible task of eradicating invasive species in South Australia, the committee heard that key issues are invasiveness and related impacts of invasive species, rather than the origin of the species.

While success stories regarding weed control are rare, one recent and ongoing success, of which members would no doubt be aware, is the ongoing biological control of the highly invasive Echium plantagineuym, commonly known in South Australia as Salvation Jane, which the CSIRO considers to be Australia's worst broadleaf temperate pasture weed. Since 1995, SARDI, working in partnership with the CSIRO and cross-border departments of primary industries, has overseen the release in South Australia of four insects designed to limit the dominance of this weed by reducing its vigour and size and the quality of the seed produced.

These insects—the crown weevil (Mogulones larvatus), the root weevil (Mogulones geographicus), the flea beetle (Longitarsus echii) (my Latin has come in useful—I think it is the first time I have ever used it) and the pollen beetle (Meligethes planiusculu).

The PRESIDENT: Would the honourable member like to repeat all that?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: No, I would not, Mr President. They are proving successful in controlling the weed. Smaller and fewer plants mean that other more palatable pasture species or native plant species are able to compete more successfully, which is great news.

In this report, the committee has made some key recommendations, three of which I would like to highlight today. Firstly, the committee has recommended legislation requiring mandatory registration and microchipping of domestic cats, together with a specific control program for non-registered and non-microchipped or unowned cats.

The Dog and Cat Management Board has estimated that approximately 590,000 of these unowned cats exist in South Australia, which is about three times the number of pet cats. Unowned cats include neighbourhood cats that appear to be someone's pet but are not really. Unlike pet cats, that are generally well looked after and de-sexed, unowned cats are responsible for producing around 172,000 kittens each year. Members heard from the Dog and Cat Management Board that over a seven-year period one female cat and her young can produce 420,000 cats, so you can see that left unchecked it is a serious problem.

While visiting the South Australian Arid Lands NRM region last year, committee members heard evidence of the shocking rate of predation on small mammals and reptiles by cats. The committee was shown a photograph—and this photograph appears on page 22 of our report—of a feral cat that had been captured and killed and the contents of its stomach inspected. In this one cat's stomach were found 24 painted dragons, three bearded dragons, three striped skinks, two earless dragons, one mouse and one zebra finch, all of which were apparently the result of a single day's hunting. So, we can see what an impact there can be.

Committee members concluded that the only really effective way of controlling feral and unowned cats would be to introduce biological controls, similar to that used against rabbits, together with statewide mandatory identification and inoculation of pet cats.

Secondly, on the subject of mouse plagues, the committee has recommended a review of the rules relating to financial assistance for farmers affected by mice. Thirdly, in response to requests from NRM groups and NRM boards, the committee has recommended that DENR consider establishing a rolling fund specifically for NRM boards to access in times of emergency in order to tackle invasive species outbreaks in a timely fashion. There are also a number of other recommendations, and I hope members will consider viewing this report.

I wish to thank all those who gave their time to assist the committee with this inquiry. The committee received 26 written submissions and heard evidence from 27 witnesses. I commend the members of the committee: Mr Geoff Brock MP, the Hon. Robert Brokenshire MLC, the Hon. John Dawkins MLC, Mrs Robyn Geraghty MP, Mr Lee Odenwalder MP, Mr Don Pegler MP, Mr Dan van Holst Pellekaan MP and the Hon. Russell Wortley MLC for their contributions. I am advised that all members of the committee have worked cooperatively throughout the course of the inquiry. Finally, I thank members of the parliamentary staff, in particular the staff of the committee, for their assistance. I commend the report to the council.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (16:11): I rise to support the motion and endorse the remarks of the Hon. Mr Holloway. I thank him for the manner in which he made those remarks, given that he comes to the committee at a time when a couple of these reports have been finalised. However, in his current position, he is the one who has to stand up here and move them in this council. I compliment him not only on doing that but also on his pronunciation, and I do not intend to repeat any of those terms.

I will make just a few comments. As the Hon. Mr Holloway said, the inquiry was first suggested by the former member for Stuart (and the seat of Eyre before it) for 39¾ years, the Hon. Graham Gunn. I think he was very concerned about invasive species right cross South Australia. As the Hon. Mr Holloway said, it was interesting that the commencement of the hearings coincided with serious mouse plagues on Eyre Peninsula and also the locust plague in a number of areas of South Australia, particularly the north-east pastoral area.

I will also highlight the comments made by councillor Margaret Wilksch of the Mount Barker council that the Hon. Mr Holloway relayed to this council. Councillor Wilksch, who is known to a number of members of this chamber, made the comments about weeds being an increasing problem, particularly in the higher rainfall areas. I think it is not only in the higher rainfall areas: it has certainly been in many of the lower rainfall areas and in pastoral areas in the last couple of years where there has been quite a lot more rain than normal.

Many property owners will tell you that there are plants on their property that they have either not seen for something like 50 years or that they have never seen in their lifetime. We need to be vigilant in working out what these weeds are and what damage they can do to the local area, to animals and to humans.

Moving on to the recommendations, as covered by the Hon. Mr Holloway, certainly we made some recommendations in relation to cats, particularly aimed at what was described in the report as unowned cats. I am not a great cat lover. My wife and I do not have a pet cat. However—and I think a lot of people relate to this—we have a cat that is owned but visits us. It is quite a friendly cat, and I confess that from time to time we may feed it. That is one of the things that happens. There are cats that do things in the community that we certainly do not condone in the behaviour of dogs or the owners of dogs, and that is an inconsistency in the way in which we handle dogs and cats.

I recognise, and the history of this parliament will show, that any endeavours to legislate around cats have been highly controversial. However, it is worth pointing out, as the Hon. Mr Holloway did, the damage that feral cats do in the areas of the outback. I witnessed that photograph of the cat and the contents of its stomach a few kilometres north of Olympic Dam. It was quite a shock to see what one animal can do in such a short period of time.

The Hon. P. Holloway: I hope it didn't get into the Arid Lands Recovery centre.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: That's right. Well, it was on the edge of that. In the other recommendations, we have referred to being more flexible in the way in which financial assistance can be provided to farmers affected by mouse plagues. It has been disappointing for me as a former farmer to see the way in which many people, who have gone through a drought and who have gone through a very promising season last year only to be dashed by all the wet weather in harvest, are now battling constantly against severe mouse numbers. I think we need to be able to assist people in their response to that in a more flexible manner.

The other one I will refer to, as did the Hon. Mr Holloway, is that there should be a rolling fund from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to be accessed by the NRM boards in times of emergency to tackle invasive species outbreaks in a timely fashion—and that is the word I emphasise, 'timely'—because sometimes, by the time the government departments and some very well-intentioned officials get through the red tape and other procedures, the actual timeliness has been missed.

I commend the report to the council. I continue to highly respect the chairmanship of the committee that is provided by the Hon. Steph Key. I thank my colleagues and I thank the staff of the committee and, as I said, I commend the report to the council.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. B.V. Finnigan.

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