Donate
Donate
Donate

Barnaby Joyce wins award for staring down Johnny Depp in quarantine fracas

Lampooned for threatening to euthanise actor Johnny Depp’s Yorkshire terriers earlier this year, federal minister Barnaby Joyce has been recognised for standing up to the Pirates of the Caribbean star and defending Australia’s tough quarantine laws.

“It might have seemed like a bit of a joke at the time but Barnaby Joyce did the right thing by enforcing Australia’s strict quarantine laws after discovering Mr Depp’s dogs Pistol and Boo had been brought into the country in an apparent breach of quarantine laws,” Invasive Species Council CEO Andrew Cox said today.

Minister Joyce is among this year’s winners of the Froggatt Awards, named in honour of Australian entomologist Walter Froggatt, a lone voice in the 1930s warning of the dangers of releasing the cane toad into Australia as a control agent for beetle infestations in the sugar cane industry.

At the time Walter wrote that ‘this great toad, immune from enemies, omnivorous in its habits, and breeding all year round, may become as great a pest as the rabbit or cactus’.

“Standing up to Johnny Depp was not enough to earn a Froggatt on its own, but Minister Joyce’s award was guaranteed when he decided this month to implement new controls to limit marine biofouling on vessels arriving in Australia,” Mr Cox said.

Queensland winners

The awards also recognise the exceptional efforts of four Queenslanders in their fight to eradicate yellow crazy ants from the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.

“Without the tireless efforts of Lucy Karger from the Wet Tropics Management Authority, Edmonton cane farmer Frank Teodo, James Cook University’s Dr Lori Lach and Cairns Post journalist Daniel Bateman few people would appreciate the danger posed by the highly invasive and environmentally destructive yellow crazy ant,” Mr Cox said.

NSW winners

Response teams also received a gong for their rapid and effective effort in eliminating red imported fire ants from Port Botany, in Sydney.

“Biosecurity NSW mobilised government staff and volunteers, oversaw extensive community education and worked closely with interstate colleagues to get sniffer dogs on the ground as soon as aggressive red imported fire ants were discovered in Sydney’s east,” Mr Cox said.

“Mop-up and surveillance operations continue but we’re very hopeful the efforts of three agencies and emergency volunteers has been successful in eradicating this incursion of red imported fire ants.”

Policy and law winner

In the policy and law category the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee has been recognised for its inquiry into environmental biosecurity and their final report.

The award recognises the committee’s insightful coverage of a complex issue and its cross-party recommendations aimed at improving Australia’s preparedness against invasive species impacting the environment.

  • Senator Anne Urquhart, (Committee Chair) Australia Labor Party, Tasmania
  • Senator Anne Ruston, (Committee Deputy Chair) Liberal Party, South Australia
  • Senator Joe Bullock, Australian Labor Party, Western Australia
  • Senator James McGrath, Liberal Party, Queensland
  • Senator Lisa Singh, Australian Labor Party, Tasmania
  • Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens, Queensland

More info

Froggatt Awards >>

  • For comment contact Andrew Cox on 0438 588 040.

Related Content

Feral Cat
Froggatt Award Nominations GF
froggatt awards gamba grass roots
Froggatt Awards 2021
Walter Froggatt
Froggatt Awards 2015

Media ContactS

  • Andrew Cox, CEO
  • James Trezise, Conservation Director
Media enquiries

Media signup

Name(Required)
Sign up to receive our media releases in your inbox.
To receive / keep receiving occasional email updates such as Feral Herald, our online blog.
This field is hidden when viewing the form

Recent Media Releases

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]