Rhys, why should we fear red fire ants?

Well, fire ants are one of the world's worst invasive species.

In the United States, they have caused fatalities.

Almost every year, they cause fatalities over there.

They are an aggressive stinging insect.

They swarm pets and livestock and wildlife and have been responsible for some severe population declines in species like the Texas horned lizard and Florida tree snails.

The thing about fire ants in Australia is almost every part of the Australian continent is suitable for fire ant infestation.

So what's happened in Queensland? Have they pretty much given up on them? In

The public didn't find out until this week.

Well, I'm, uh, I do have some concerns about this timeline, and there's some questions here that I do want clarified going forward.

As a rule, we should be trying to ensure that these kind of notifications of a serious biosecurity incident are provided to the community at the earliest available opportunity.

The community is the eyes and ears that can help us, you know, uh, deal with these kinds of fire ant incursions and, uh, you know, ultimately there's a question here.

We knew we had genetic confirmation that these were fire ants some weeks ago.

That nest was destroyed," and sort of inferring that this was under control?

Well, look, you know, uh, there may very well be only one nest.

Um, there may be undetected additional nests in the local area.

How rare is this discovery?

Well, we know that fire ants are intercepted at our border through biosecurity, uh, with increasing regularity.

The difference here is these fire ants got through that biosecurity and into the ground.

So now there needs to be a response to ensure that every fire ant nest in the area is found and destroyed.

Um, w-we know that the one that has been, uh, is, uh, now, uh, has been eradicated, but, um, you know, fire ants are one of the world's worst invasive species, so, um, there will need to be a serious response to this.

So how do we know that they've arrived from overseas rather than from interstate? Is that, is that an obvious question with a basic answer?

No, it's a, it's a very important question that people understand that there was genetic testing, uh, to see if there was a match with Queensland's fire ant infestation, the one that is currently under eradication.

That genetic testing confirmed that there is not a match with that Brisbane fire ant infestation.

Is that the only way to get rid of them?

so look there is you know as you get closer into people's properties you do need to rely on those you know ground shooters and uh drones thermal imaging from drones to support that in other states they do use aerial shooting pretty close into urban areas you know western australia has just had a pretty successful cull in some of their larger towns, on the outskirts of their larger towns.

But the other tool that really that the Victorian government needs to look at making available is the opportunity to use trapping as a control tool for deer in peri-urban areas.

So there is a regulatory problem.

Deer still do have protected status.

under Victorian law.

And that is a problem for land managers trying to navigate those regulations to control what is, frankly, a feral invasive species.

What's the big difference in terms of using either of those strategies? Is it just more risk associated with the aerial strategy?

Why have you raised this issue now?

What we've seen over the past few months, what's been reported to us from members of the community and practitioners of invasive species management working in that area is they are seeing, first of all, a growing number of horses in and around the highway area.

they're also reporting a growing impact of that horse population on the nature reserve and on the Ramsar wetlands in that area.

And so it's timely from that regard, but we've also had reported to us over the past few months, there have been a number of incidents with motorists using the Muir Highway, actually having collisions with horses, you know, one of which resulted in a horse having to be euthanized on the side of a road.

Several have resulted in significant damage to vehicles.

And our concern specifically is that if this situation isn't dealt with quickly, we will see escalating impacts on nature and escalating impacts on the community and motorists that are using that highway.

What's your understanding of the, I guess, the timeline or the origin of the horses in the area?

What we've been told and made aware of is that over the past 10 to 15 years, horses have been essentially released into that area, you know, that have escaped from properties or been released because they're no longer to be maintained anymore.

Mm.

And you might remember from the chat we had about deer, you know, one of the things you really wanna do is you wanna get in and control these populations while they are still quite small.

Uh, that means a, a cull to, to keep their numbers down.

Um, that way you don't find yourself in a situation where the numbers grow over the years and you end up with a problem Like the one that exists with deer, which is much larger, or the one that exists with, uh, with pigs, which is, you know, much larger still and, and al-almost beyond control, right? So that's the situation that's going on here.

We've got a bit of disruption going on for the nat-- uh, for the, uh, uh, nature reserve in that area, but also for the highway users.

But, but do you see that as a viable option in, in the future if things do start to progress?

I draw a distinction in my mind around, you know, recreational hunting as an activity and professional coordinated, uh, humane feral animal control.

I see them as, as slightly different things.

state.Have you had any local hunters put their hand up and say, "Hey, go park the chopper, we got this"?

Yeah, they'll...

Look, the, and this is one of the things that's always put forward as a solution, right? Like, you know, look, uh, and it's great community spirit.

People are saying, "Yeah, let us at 'em, let us have a go." Um, and there are places for that.

You know, um, those sorts of coordinated programs have been used in parts of the country, particularly for pig control work.

In this particular instance though, this is about eradication, and that's why you need those aerial platforms, the helicopters, with the professional qualified and trained shooters in them that have all the right paperwork and are also being monitored to ensure that their work is done as humanely as possible, backed up by the spotters with the thermal imaging, so that they can actually find those last few deer in the landscape and make sure that they remove them, that they control them and kill them so that they don't become the source that repopulates that infestation.

Can you use the meat for anything?

Yeah, look, and this is another solution, right? You know, the idea of, um, you know, deer meat markets.

While the $1,200 fine looks small in comparison, the Invasive Species Council's advocacy director, Rhys Piñata, explains that the bricks that they were transported on at the time were thought to be a low-risk carrier.

Bricks, shipments, pallets, these are things that have been always considered unlikely as a movement source of fire ants.

And so that's why it was a little bit surprising in the first instance that fire ants were able to hitch a ride on that shipment into central Queensland to the mine sites.

But having said that, it does show how versatile and invasive species fire ants are that they were able to get into this unconventional carrying material.

And everyone does have an obligation under the Queensland Biosecurity Act to ensure that they're not moving fire ants in any carrying material.

So it's important that people stay vigilant.

And I think this penalty sounds like it is matched to the level of risk that was reflected or advised to the organisation.

Does that, in your mind, show a disconnect between, I suppose, what the penalty is versus what the enforcement action is costing?