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Action needs to match fire ant tough talk

Our federal, state and territory governments are failing us. We need your help to dial up the pressure to get fire ants eradicated for good.

How to help  |  Take action

In July 2023, Ministers from all of Australia’s federal, state and territory governments sat on their hands and missed their opportunity to act on fire ants.

Stopping fire ants in Australia requires an overhauled and fully resourced fire ant eradication program. 

A report held by the governments for years outlines what is required: at least $200 million per year over the next decade. But delay has risked abandoning Australia to a future infested with fire ants.

“Fire ants will have a $2 billion a year impact on the economy, devastate natural wildlife, cause a 40% hit to agriculture production and trigger hundreds of thousands of hospital visits from reactions to their stings. In Queensland we are already seeing sports fields and beaches closed due to the extremely painful sting inflicted by fire ants.”
– Reece Pianta, Invasive Species Council Fire Ant Campaigner

The South East Queensland infestation has spread to just 12 km from the New South Wales border. From there, they could raft down the Murray River catchment and hitch a ride on freight across the country. So long as fire ants are on the mainland somewhere, they could pop up anywhere at any time.

That means funding fire ant eradication is the responsibility of every state, territory and federal government. But some ministers might continue to hide away from the fire ant threat and shelve the problem for later.

“The government’s own review report in 2021 said that at least $200-300 million per year was needed to eradicate fire ants by 2032 and save Australia from over $2 billion in annual economic costs. We cannot risk another half-baked, underfunded program. There is just too much at stake to risk failure.”
– Reece Pianta, Invasive Species Council Fire Ant Campaigner

Our politicians say they remain committed to eradicating fire ants – but so far have only announced $60 million in funding. Far less than the $300 million their own report calls for and less even than what was spent this year on fire ant eradication!

How can political leaders say they are committed to fire ant eradication if they are cutting funding for eradication efforts?

We need to clear up this confusion and make sure our governments know unequivocally that we want fire ants eradicated for good. Add your voice now!

In July 2023, Ministers from all of Australia’s federal, state and territory governments sat on their hands and missed their opportunity to act on fire ants.

Stopping fire ants in Australia requires an overhauled and fully resourced fire ant eradication program. 

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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]