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Invasive species in Australia – 2016 election priorities

cnt-national-priorities-2016

There is no better time to think about Australia’s national priorities when it comes to how we deal with dangerous new invasive weeds, pests and diseases than during a federal election year.

That’s why we’ve assembled a list of the top federal issues that, if acted upon, will make a difference to the growing invasive species threat in Australia.

Imagine if we could go back in time and stop the introduction of rabbits into Australia. How much damage could have been prevented? How many native animals would be in better shape? And how much money would have been saved by governments and private landowners?

Think also of carp, cane toads, prickly pears, fire-encouraging gamba grass and the willows that choke our waterways, think about the damage that could have been prevented to productive and wild lands if these species had been kept out of Australia.

Learn from the past, shape the future

Despite the lessons of the past, we have not heeded the message, and new destructive pests are arriving every year – myrtle rust, Asian honeybees, red imported fire ants, yellow crazy ants and smooth newts are some recent examples. At least 48 new potentially harmful species have been detected and established in the wild since 2000 because of biosecurity failures.

A 2015 Senate inquiry found incursions of harmful invasive species are ’a regular occurrence‘, while the Hawke review of the EPBC Act found that most states and territories are failing to prevent the deliberate movement of thousands of exotic plant species including many known weeds.

Turning this around will require a strategic and coordinated approach, underpinned by knowledge gained through innovative science and greater community involvement. Australia needs to give a much higher national priority to stopping invasive species arriving and quickly moving to eradicate any that do.

2016 national priorities

We have identified seven key areas where refocusing existing funding and targeting additional investment can deliver better outcomes, including large long-term cost savings, stemming biodiversity losses and enhancing agricultural productivity.

Here are our seven national priorities as a glance:

  1. Implement findings of the 2015 Senate inquiry into environmental biosecurity.
  2. Be better prepared through improved institutional arrangements for new environmental biosecurity risks, creating Environment Health Australia.
  3. Invest invasive species research to underpin more efficient future management.
  4. Know what we are aiming for as part of the national biodiversity strategy, set a strong invasive species target with a funded plan.
  5. Reduce the spread of weeds into new areas by regulating the movement of pest plants between states and territories.
  6. Put biosecurity above novelty pets, reducing risks to the environment from exotic pets.
  7. Protect off-shore islands by stopping new pests reaching them and eradicating existing pests on priority islands.

Good biosecurity is not cheap, but it is much cheaper than the consequences.

More info

Download our full 12-page report.

See how the parties measured up.

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Save the Snowies

Join thousands of Australians who are standing up for Kosciuszko National Park!

The NSW government is one step away from allowing aerial control of feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park. This is huge news and a crucial step for our threatened native wildlife and the fragile alpine ecosystems they call home.

Take action now

Hear from us when it matters

Your support to protect critically endangered and vulnerable species from extinction is vital. Together, we can ensure governments prioritise action on invasive species and protect our wildlife and iconic places.

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.

Our Work

About Us

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]