The federal government’s response to a Senate inquiry into the spread of invasive fire ants has been labelled inadequate with experts saying Labor has “essentially pressed the pause button”.
An April upper house report contained 10 recommendations. The Albanese government on Monday said it supported three in their entirety and three in principle – including calls for funding reviews, more transparency and improved council collaboration.
The government’s response to the report was led by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. It provides few details as to how the recommendations will be implemented beyond existing eradication plans, the Invasive Species Council’s Reece Pianta said.
“Fire ants are an ongoing emergency situation that isn’t being taken seriously by the government,” he said.
“The government has essentially pressed the pause button and delayed a review into fire ants until after the next federal election, but the public need to know what all of the different parties contesting the election are going to do about fire ants.”
The Senate report – which followed three days of public hearings and scores of submissions from scientists, community groups and local governments – prioritised reviewing the National Fire Ant Eradication Program’s funding.
According to Labor’s response, a government-led “Gate review” of the program was set for late 2025, while a broader independent review of the program would be undertaken in 2026-27.
A 2025 “efficiency and effectiveness” review had already been planned and should be brought forward, Pianta said. The council is calling for a “short, sharp, urgent” funding and resourcing review of the program by the end of February.
“We’ve seen how quickly fire ants spread over the past 12 months into northern New South Wales and the Sunshine Coast – a lot can happen in the next 12 months if there aren’t sufficient resources. Finding that out late in 2025 could be too late,” Pianta said.
“The course correction needs to happen now, and that was the point that the Senate inquiry was trying to make with [recommending a funding review] that I think has been missed.”
The council said that, if allowed to spread, fire ants would burden the health system with 650,000 extra medical appointments and more than $2bn in costs each year.
Red imported fire ants (Rifa) were first detected in Queensland in 2001 and can kill people, native animals and livestock as well as damage infrastructure and ecosystems. They have infested more than 700,000 hectares in the Brisbane area. In August, fire ant nests were discovered in protected koala habitat near Brisbane.
The government response stated that it “takes very seriously the significant risk that RIFA pose and is committed to the eradication of RIFA in south-east Queensland (SEQ) and northern NSW”.
“The [fire ants program] is one of the most scrutinised biosecurity programs delivered in Australia and has been reviewed 14 times since 2001, with the most recent independent review undertaken in 2021.”
Queensland LNP senator Matt Canavan, who led the fire ants inquiry, said he believed an ongoing review was needed but that the response “shows a united commitment from all sides of politics to get the risk of red imported fire ants under control, with the vast majority of recommendations from the inquiry being supported by the government”.
The inquiry began in October 2023. Funding to the fire ant program was significantly increased later that month with an additional $268m committed until 2027 to the eradication of fire ants.
“While I do think there is a need for an ongoing review, the government has committed to that as part of their efforts to be completed in 2025,” Canavan said.
“I support the additional funding and focus on the threat of red imported fire ants since our inquiry first started.”
The opposition agriculture spokesperson and leader of the Nationals, David Littleproud, said Labor’s response had been “too slow” and “conveniently” came after the Queensland state election.
“It’s a huge coincidence that 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,” Littleproud said on Tuesday.
“These delays have allowed the fire ant biosecurity zone to progressively increase in size.”
