³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾s Leader David Littleproud said Labor has been too slow to act on its response into the Senate inquiry report Red imported fire ants in Australia – ‘don’t let this come back to bite us’.
Mr Littleproud said Labor had spent more than six months before finally releasing its response, conveniently waiting until the Queensland election was over.
“It’s a huge coincidence the Federal Labor government has done absolutely nothing since the Senate inquiry and waited until the first day of a new LNP Government in Queensland to release its response,” Mr Littleproud said.
“These delays have allowed the fire ant biosecurity zone to progressively increase in size.
“Critically, the first recommendation was that the Australian Government review the current level of funding with the state governments.
“But Labor cared more about a state election than pointing out the delays made by the former Labor state government. As a result, community safety, productivity and our future way of life has been put at risk.
“Now Labor is acting as if it’s business as usual, even though outliers have been found in the Ranges and in New South Wales and fire ants have been spreading.
“Labor’s funding was needed urgently for the 2023-2027 response plan, but was delayed until the end of 2023, which put the time-critical response at risk.
“The lack of action and the delays in funding undermine previous work that had been done under the Coalition Government to control fire ants.”
“Labor must now get cracking and actually take action, not waste another six months.”
The Invasive Species Council says Labor’s response to the fire ant inquiry is disappointing and seems to miss the point of the Senate’s recommendations.
“The evidence at the Senate inquiry was clear that the current level of resourcing is not sufficient to eradicate this super pest,” Invasive Species Council Advocacy Manager Reece Pianta said.
“This was an opportunity for the government to ensure fire ant eradication was on track. Instead, they hit the pause button until after the next federal election at the end of 2025. This is extremely disappointing.
“If allowed to spread, each year fire ants will burden our health system with 650,000 extra medical appointments and over $2 billion in economic costs.
“The senate recommended an urgent review of funding and resourcing, yet the federal government is holding back on this until after next year’s election.
‘They have also refused recommendations for a more robust fire ant suppression program. This shows they’ve failed to grasp the urgency of scaling up suppression work. Right now numbers are skyrocketing due to a lack of personnel, bait, and equipment for suppression.”
