Red fire ant: The latest detection in face of calls for funding review

A noted pest has been detected near Toowoomba in Queensland as a new report calls for a review of government biosecurity funding.

Recommendations calling for a funding review and greater transparency around biosecurity incursions have come hot on the heels of a new outbreak of red imported fire ants west of Toowoomba.

Findings from a federal inquiry into the noted pest were published late this week, with a number of recommendations made including a funding review, improving transparency and accountability across the red imported fire ant response, and cutting down the bureaucratic process in response to the pest.

It comes as an incursion of red fire ant was detected for the first time at Oakey, near Toowoomba in Queensland.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said the detection was concerning given the location’s proximity to the Murray Darling Basin.

Red fire ant was detected at Oakey in Queensland this week. It comes as a government inquiry into the government’s handling of red fire ant has called for funding reviews and greater transparency. Picture: Supplied.

“The worrying thing about the Oakey detection is that if fire ants get up above the Great

Dividing Range, it could potentially get into the Murray Darling Basin and that could

effectively see the fire ants go right down to Adelaide,” Mr Littleproud said.

“It would impact the whole country and have devastating consequences.”

Last year, The Weekly Times revealed the number of biosecurity incursions in Victoria has trended upwards since 2015, peaking at 20 incursions in 2020-21.

But a full list of all incursions and incidents was not released on the basis of confidentiality.

Invasive Special Council advocacy manager Reece Pianta said the inquiry report was a call to government to boost fire ant eradication efforts, and made clear “the government needs to do more to repair the damage done by past fire ant failures”.

“The evidence to the committee was damning, there’s now no excuse, the government must conduct an urgent review of fire ant eradication funding,” Mr Pianta said.

“This report comes on the heels of new economic modelling that fire ant impacts will exceed $2 billion per year.”