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Invasive Species Council
Invasive Species Council

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Invasive Species Council

Our Wins

We have a proud history of standing up to protect Australia's incredible natural world from the multiple threats of dangerous pests, weeds and diseases.

Impacts

NATIONAL

  • In 2023, funding commitments we won at the federal election were delivered in the national budget: $25M for Queensland’s yellow crazy ant eradication programs, $10M to tackle gamba grass and to double the number of Indigenous rangers.
  • In 2022, funding commitments we won at the Federal Election were delivered in the 2023 national budget: $25M for Queensland’s yellow crazy ant eradication programs and $10M to tackle gamba grass and to double the number of indigenous rangers.
  • In 2021, won a commitment by state, territory and federal government to make 2020’s the Decade of Biosecurity, to build a stronger system to protect all Australians.
  • In 2018 secured the appointment of a Chief Environmental Biosecurity Officer, a permanent role within the federal government with a dedicated focus on the environment, largely working to prevent invasive threats from arriving and establishing in Australia.
  • In 2017 secured $411 million in a 10-year commitment to eradicate red fire ants from S.E. Queensland and stop their spread across Australia, the world’s most ambitious ant eradication program.
  • In 2012, the Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation instituted a requirement for risk assessment prior to research projects being initiated, preventing new industries being setup that would rely on growing invasive weeds or farming pest animals. They have since reneged. More work is needed here.
  • In 2009, the federal government rejected an application to import bumblebees for horticulture.
  • A 2014 review of weed management in NSW recommended a ban on the sale of weedy plants by plant nurseries. Secured a promise to implement this recommendation from the NSW Labor Opposition prior to the 2014 and 2019 elections.
  • A 2009 national review of Australia’s environmental law recommended national reform to regulate environmental weeds.

REGIONAL

  • In 2023, we won commitments from the incoming NSW Labor government that are now being implemented, including: 100 new National Parks and Wildlife Service pest and weed officers; an independent biosecurity commission; a permitted list to stop the sale of weedy plants through nurseries; a commitment to reduce feral horse numbers in Kosciuszko National Park to 3000 by 2027; a comprehensive independent inquiry into invasive species management in NSW.
  • In 2022, secured an ongoing commitment from the Victorian government to control feral horses in national parks in the High Country.
  • In 2022 protected Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area from feral deer by securing a commitment in the Tasmanian governments deer strategy to keep the WHA deer free.
  • In 2021, protected Kosciuszko National Park from a growing plague of feral horses by winning a new NSW plan to actively manage feral horses from 14,000 to 3000 by 2026.
  • In 2019, won the official designation for feral deer to be recognised as a priority pest and the removal of feral deer protected status in NSW allowing for effective feral deer management.
  • From 2022 - 2016 Protecting Queensland's Wet Tropics World Heritage Area from Yellow crazy ants which are now in retreat with an eradication program in place for the tropical far north in Cairns.
  • In 2021, won a stronger feral horses plan for Victoria’s Alpine National Park which utilises the full suite of control measures to drive down feral horse numbers (including ground and aerial shooting) and aims to eliminate them from the sensitive alpine ecosystems on the Bogong High Plains, working with Victorian National Parks Association.
  • In 2020, secured a new Victorian deer management strategy that prioritises the environment following years of pressure and collaboration.
  • In 2020 secured $18M over 4 years in Victorian government investment for on-ground feral deer control as part of the new deer management strategy.
  • In 2013 defeated a proposal for recreational hunting in national parks and brought about the abolition of the NSW Game Council, working with the National Parks Association of NSW.
  • The Invasive Species Council played an important role in the successful National Parks Association of NSW campaign to defeat recreational hunting in national parks and the abolition of the NSW Game Council in 2013.
  • In 2011, successfully lobbied to stop research trials of giant reed in SA, promoted as a major biofuel crop and listed by the IUCN on the list of 100 of the world’s worst invasive species
  • In 2008, won a Queensland Government declaration and banning of one of Australia’s worst weeds – bushfire causing gamba grass.
  • Our work in 2004 led to the Queensland Government declaring Mexican bean tree (Cecropia spp.), which is on the IUCN list of 100 of the world’s worst invasive species, as a weed species.

Successes

  • In 2019 and 2022, co-hosted Australia’s 1st and 2nd Biosecurity Symposium - an unprecedented opportunity to foster new collaborations and transform Australia’s future biosecurity system to better protect our economy, environment and way of life.
  • A 2021 Senate inquiry report called for national declaration of feral deer as a pest.
  • In 2020, initiated the formation of a powerful alliance representing agricultural and environmental interests – the Biosecurity Collective – to create the Biosecurity 2030 Project that confronts Australia’s unprecedented biosecurity challenges.
  • In 2017, succeeded in pushing the NSW government to publish Australia’s first ever State of Biosecurity Report.
  • In 2014, the Invasive Species Council won a Senate inquiry into environmental biosecurity. The report, released in May 2015, referred to Invasive Species Council evidence 85 times and was the precursor to environmental biosecurity needs being elevated to that of human health and agriculture.
  • From 2013 - 2004, the Invasive Species Council influenced a senate inquiry on weeds and pests (2004), a review of quarantine and biosecurity (2008), a review of federal environmental laws (2009), a House of Representatives Inquiry on climate change and biodiversity (2013), and a senate inquiry into threatened species and communities (2013).

Achievements

  • The Invasive Insects Risks and Pathways Project developed Australia’s first assessment of non-native insect species that pose a high risk to the environment. The comprehensive assessment of potential impacts, completed in partnership with Monash University, identified exotic insect species that have the potential to cause major harm to the natural environment if they ever reach Australia.
  • In 2020, developed a 10-year plan to eradicate yellow crazy ants from the Townsville area.
  • In 2007, the Invasive Species Council was the first NGO in the world to focus attention on serious weed risks of proposed biofuel crops.

Related Content

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  2. Critically endangered Norfolk Island green parrot. Photo: Luis Ortiz-Catedral What we do

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Invasives Species Council
The Invasive Species Council was formed in 2002 to seek stronger laws, policies and programs to protect nature from harmful pests, weeds and diseases.
The Invasive Species Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia and their connections to land and sea. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

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Invasives Species Council
The Invasive Species Council was formed in 2002 to seek stronger laws, policies and programs to protect nature from harmful pests, weeds and diseases.

The Invasive Species Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia and their connections to land and sea. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. The Invasive Species Council supports voting ‘YES’ for a Voice to Parliament.

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Dear Project Team,

[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Your email address]
[Your postcode]


Dear Project Team,

[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Your email address]
[Your postcode]