Search
Close this search box.
Search
Close this search box.

Global Category: biosecurity policy

Proposed field trial of genetically modified perennial ryegrass

The Invasive Species Council recommends that the Gene Technology Regulator refuses the application for a licence to conduct a field trial of perennial ryegrass genetically modified for increased metabolisable energy content. We strongly disagree with the assessment that the ‘risks to the environment from the proposed release are negligible’.

Read More »

Combating invasive species: Priorities for the next NSW Government

We face a crisis and current measures and resources in NSW are insufficient to halt and mitigate the impact of established invasive species and prevent the arrival and spread of new invasive species. In this document we detail priority actions the next NSW government can take that will strengthen the NSW biosecurity system and address priority environmental threats from invasive species.

Read More »
Feral deer are probably Australia’s worst emerging pest problem, causing damage to the natural environment and agricultural businesses. Photo: Diana Parkhouse | Pixabay

Feral deer

Feral deer are probably Australia’s worst emerging pest problem, causing damage to the natural environment and agricultural businesses.

Read More »

Is hunting conservation?

Funding recreational hunting as a primary method of control is a waste of taxpayers’ money. At best, hunters can supplement more effective methods of feral animal control.

Read More »

Tasmania’s draft biosecurity strategy 2022-2027

The Invasive Species Council welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission into the draft of Tasmania’s Biosecurity Strategy 2022-2027. The draft strategy is a well developed document, and shows that Tasmania takes biosecurity seriously, and considers all components as important.

Read More »
Climate change increases threats to Australian native wildlife

Climate Change

Australia is an extinction world leader. Let’s be the generation that ends invasive species-led extinctions in Australia.

Read More »
Myrtle Rust Feature Image - Tim Low

Draft National Biosecurity Strategy

Invasive species are driving massive loss of the natural world, globally and in Australia. The projections predict the pressures driving these impacts will only increase. A stronger, risk-based biosecurity system that seeks to involve all Australians is essential to limit this loss and move Australia towards ecological recovery.

Read More »

Proposed field trial of genetically modified perennial ryegrass

The Invasive Species Council recommends that the Gene Technology Regulator refuses the application for a licence to conduct a field trial of perennial ryegrass genetically modified for increased metabolisable energy content. We strongly disagree with the assessment that the ‘risks to the environment from the proposed release are negligible’.

Read More »

Combating invasive species: Priorities for the next NSW Government

We face a crisis and current measures and resources in NSW are insufficient to halt and mitigate the impact of established invasive species and prevent the arrival and spread of new invasive species. In this document we detail priority actions the next NSW government can take that will strengthen the NSW biosecurity system and address priority environmental threats from invasive species.

Read More »
Feral deer are probably Australia’s worst emerging pest problem, causing damage to the natural environment and agricultural businesses. Photo: Diana Parkhouse | Pixabay

Feral deer

Feral deer are probably Australia’s worst emerging pest problem, causing damage to the natural environment and agricultural businesses.

Read More »

Is hunting conservation?

Funding recreational hunting as a primary method of control is a waste of taxpayers’ money. At best, hunters can supplement more effective methods of feral animal control.

Read More »

Tasmania’s draft biosecurity strategy 2022-2027

The Invasive Species Council welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission into the draft of Tasmania’s Biosecurity Strategy 2022-2027. The draft strategy is a well developed document, and shows that Tasmania takes biosecurity seriously, and considers all components as important.

Read More »
Climate change increases threats to Australian native wildlife

Climate Change

Australia is an extinction world leader. Let’s be the generation that ends invasive species-led extinctions in Australia.

Read More »
Myrtle Rust Feature Image - Tim Low

Draft National Biosecurity Strategy

Invasive species are driving massive loss of the natural world, globally and in Australia. The projections predict the pressures driving these impacts will only increase. A stronger, risk-based biosecurity system that seeks to involve all Australians is essential to limit this loss and move Australia towards ecological recovery.

Read More »

Proposed field trial of genetically modified perennial ryegrass

The Invasive Species Council recommends that the Gene Technology Regulator refuses the application for a licence to conduct a field trial of perennial ryegrass genetically modified for increased metabolisable energy content. We strongly disagree with the assessment that the ‘risks to the environment from the proposed release are negligible’.

Read More »

Combating invasive species: Priorities for the next NSW Government

We face a crisis and current measures and resources in NSW are insufficient to halt and mitigate the impact of established invasive species and prevent the arrival and spread of new invasive species. In this document we detail priority actions the next NSW government can take that will strengthen the NSW biosecurity system and address priority environmental threats from invasive species.

Read More »
Feral deer are probably Australia’s worst emerging pest problem, causing damage to the natural environment and agricultural businesses. Photo: Diana Parkhouse | Pixabay

Feral deer

Feral deer are probably Australia’s worst emerging pest problem, causing damage to the natural environment and agricultural businesses.

Read More »

Is hunting conservation?

Funding recreational hunting as a primary method of control is a waste of taxpayers’ money. At best, hunters can supplement more effective methods of feral animal control.

Read More »

Tasmania’s draft biosecurity strategy 2022-2027

The Invasive Species Council welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission into the draft of Tasmania’s Biosecurity Strategy 2022-2027. The draft strategy is a well developed document, and shows that Tasmania takes biosecurity seriously, and considers all components as important.

Read More »
Climate change increases threats to Australian native wildlife

Climate Change

Australia is an extinction world leader. Let’s be the generation that ends invasive species-led extinctions in Australia.

Read More »
Myrtle Rust Feature Image - Tim Low

Draft National Biosecurity Strategy

Invasive species are driving massive loss of the natural world, globally and in Australia. The projections predict the pressures driving these impacts will only increase. A stronger, risk-based biosecurity system that seeks to involve all Australians is essential to limit this loss and move Australia towards ecological recovery.

Read More »

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]