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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-07 Daily Xml
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Red Imported Fire Ants

The Hon. R.B. MARTIN (14:49): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Will the minister please update the council about the role South Australia is playing in the ongoing battle against red fire ants?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:49): I thank the honourable member for his question. Of course, I have stood up in this place on numerous occasions and addressed members on a wide variety of feral and invasive pests—feral pigs, deer, fruit fly and wild dogs, just to name a few—all of which pose significant and ongoing challenges to our state.

One such invasive pest that I hope to never have to talk about in this place as having taken home in South Australia is red imported fire ants. They were first discovered in Australia at the northern port of Brisbane in Queensland in 2001. These ants are only two to six millimetres long, but their bites unfortunately pack a punch that vastly exceeds their size. They are aggressive, swarm when disturbed and can inflict a painful sting that can cause potentially fatal allergic reactions in humans, pets and livestock.

Red imported fire ants are widespread in more than a dozen states across the USA and there sadly have been reported human fatalities from the ants' bites because of people going into anaphylactic shock. It is also estimated to cost US industry and agriculture $7 billion a year. In the US and indeed in Queensland, where there has been a prolonged outbreak, they have seen local parks, reserves and sporting precincts closed because of red fire ant infestations and often these closures are for weeks to ensure public safety can be improved.

It is for these reasons that the South Australian government has recently committed an additional $17 million as part of a nationwide package to the National Fire Ant Eradication Program, which is a cost-sharing arrangement between state and territory governments, along with the commonwealth, to help the ongoing battle against this dangerous pest.

I am advised that this additional funding will expand the program to include 350 new workers, a new depot, new vehicles, new aerial eradication contracts and an additional 1,400 tonnes of bait each year. It will support the program operations, doubling the size of the treatment and surveillance area, including high-density residential areas. This funding is in addition to the previously committed $6½ million that South Australia had already budgeted.

Not only are red fire ants a threat to humans, parks and reserves and so on but they render agricultural machinery, paddocks and farmland unusable and are a great threat to the livestock industry across the country. Fire ants are considered one of the world's worst super pests and have the potential to spread across 97 per cent of Australia. Concerningly, five red fire ant nests were detected in Murwill—

The Hon. T.A. Franks: Murwillumbah.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: Thank you—Murwillumbah in northern New South Wales, having crossed the border from Queensland where they are most prevalent and have caused significant damage. The ants are certainly on the march, with estimates they are currently spreading between five and 45 kilometres each year, so it is essential for our state to play its part in preventing the spread of these fire ants and ensure that they are contained and that eradication is achieved.

The National Fire Ant Eradication Program is a nationally cost-shared program, funded, as I mentioned, by all Australian state and territory governments, along with the commonwealth, and delivered by Biosecurity Queensland. I had the opportunity last year to visit the control centre for fire ant management in Berrinba in Queensland and see firsthand for myself the work being done to eradicate the pest and also to see the significant damage that the ants are causing. I saw some of the latest technology and innovative approaches that are being implemented to assist with the eradication program.

One of the challenges has been locating red imported fire ant nests. One of the response tools to this challenge has been sniffer dogs, which are able to sniff out the nests which allow response units to then quickly destroy the established nest colony, and I saw that in action when I was there. Participating in the national eradication response is critical to ensure our state is protected from this dangerous pest into the future.

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