'Real risk' of missed deadlineĪs the lead state managing the incursion, Queensland has previously brought funding forward for program, but had no further funding available this year to top up the budgeted $30 million. Three years ago, the program admitted its older generation remote camera technology was occasionally incorrectly identifying cow pats as fire ant nests in 2021, it began using a second-generation camera pack, with artificial intelligence analysing nests before sending staff on foot to investigate. The program's meeting minutes and annual reports note understaffing and budget shortfalls, while dozens of biannual efficiency reviews have made multiple recommendations about how the program should be run. ( Supplied: Qld Department of Agriculture and Fisheries)īoth models were handed to the program's steering committee in 2020.ĭr Spring said he has had no communication with the committee about those reports since then. "The maps were never put forward as answers, as really accurate maps.Ī man's elbow that has red blisters caused by fire ant bites. "Substantial work was done to develop models, maps of the ants, with certain degrees of confidence," he told ABC Radio Brisbane. His team recommended the program begin firstly with extensive surveillance, to ensure the very edge of the ant's spread was being targeted and the program could be confident it was pushing the pest back. In 20 Dr Spring analysed the likely spread of the pest across south-east Queensland ahead of the 10-year program's launch.īut due to limited funding, minimal pesticide treatments were conducted in the two years between his analysis and the 10-year program officially launching in 2017, Dr Spring said. ![]() ![]() Melbourne University bioeconomics expert Dr Danny Spring has consulted on the fire ant program for more than 15 years, conducting detailed analysis and computer modelling using the program's own data. Without treatment, the ant incursion was forecast to spread as far south as Canberra, west to Longreach and north to Bowen.Įfforts to contain and eradicate the ant have been underway since 2001, with the latest iteration launched in 2017 as a 10-year national cost-shared plan. Unchecked, fire ants can destroy crops, livestock, and seriously injure or even kill humans, with an estimated $1.65 billion hit to Australia's annual economy if allowed to stay. ( Supplied: Department of Primary Industries) ![]() Red imported fire ants are a dangerous pest.
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