A submission to a 5-year statutory review of the decision not to prepare a Threat Abatement Plan for the Key Threatening Process ‘invasion of escaped garden and aquatic plants’ listed under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. The submission was prepared by the Invasive Species Council and provided to the federal Department of the Environment in May 2014.
The submission recommends that a threat abatement plan be prepared for the Key Threatening Process ‘Loss and degradation of native plant and animal habitat by invasion of escaped garden plants, including aquatic plants’. We believe that current policies in place have failed to systematically close pathways for weed establishment and spread and the threat from escaped garden plants remains serious. The rationale for a threat abatement plan is strong.