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Invasive Species Council welcomes new environmental biosecurity chief

The Invasive Species Council has welcomed the appointment of Dr Gabrielle Vivian-Smith as Australia’s new Chief Environmental Biosecurity Officer (CEBO), saying the role is critical to strengthening Australia’s defences against invasive species and emerging environmental threats.

The Council also thanked outgoing Chief Environmental Biosecurity Officer Dr Bertie Hennecke for his leadership and contribution to advancing environmental biosecurity within government.

This comes as the role was recently elevated to First Assistant Secretary, the same level as the Chief Plant Protection Officer and Chief Veterinary Officer – a priority reform the Invasive Species Council has been campaigning for.  

‘We welcome Dr Gabrielle Vivian-Smith into this important role and look forward to working with her to strengthen Australia’s environmental biosecurity system at a time when the risks have never been greater,’ Invasive Species Council CEO Jack Gough said. 

‘Australia’s biodiversity is under enormous pressure from invasive species, emerging diseases and new environmental threats arriving through global trade and travel.

‘Environmental biosecurity has historically not received the same level of attention or resourcing as agricultural biosecurity, despite the enormous consequences invasive species have for native species, waterways, forests and protected areas.

‘Strong environmental biosecurity is not optional – it is fundamental to preventing extinctions and protecting the natural systems Australians depend on.

‘The Environmental Biosecurity Project Fund is the only dedicated fund for environmental biosecurity but it has been stuck at just $850,000 a year since 2018.

‘This should be increased to at least $2.5 million a year to enable the multi-year, high-impact projects urgently needed to protect our environment from new invaders.

‘This fund supports critical, science-based projects that improve early detection, surveillance, and response to invasive species that threaten Australia’s wildlife and precious places.

‘We thank outgoing CEBO Bertie for his contribution and leadership in this role and wish him all the best for the future.’

The Invasive Species Council said key priorities for the new CEBO should include:

  • being a strong internal and external champion for environmental biosecurity across government and the broader community
  • increasing Australia’s capacity to prevent the arrival of new invasive species through stronger regulation of high-risk pathways into the country
  • improving how Australia assesses environmental risks before imports are approved
  • strengthening preparedness for high-risk invasive species and disease threats, including nationally coordinated surveillance and rapid eradication responses
  • ensuring Australia is well prepared for the potential arrival of H5 bird flu
  • supporting research into major environmental biosecurity challenges
  • fostering nationally coordinated management of significant invasive species already established in Australia.

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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]