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Senate inquiry to look at preventing new invasive species

The Australian Senate has set up an inquiry to look into how we can prevent the arrival into Australia of new invasive species impacting on the environment.
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On 26 June 2014 the Australian Senate set up an inquiry to look into how to prevent the arrival into Australia of new invasive species impacting on the environment.

The inquiry will look into recent biosecurity failures that have allowed the introduction of invasive species that hard the natural environment along with our state of preparedness for new environmental incursions.

The inquiry has been referred to the Senate standing committee: the Environment and Communications References Committee and is due to report by 3 December 2014.

The inquiry has been set up following calls from the Invasive Species Council for an inquiry following systematic breaches of our quarantine by environmentally damaging invasive species. It will be the first time in over ten years that Parliament has scrutinised failures of Australia’s quarantine in this area.

We are waiting to hear about dates for submissions and other information. Keep an eye on the Senate Committee webpage and our home page for information about how you can contribute.

Inquiry terms of reference

Inquiry into preventing invasive species harmful to the natural environment

The adequacy of arrangements to prevent the entry and establishment of invasive species likely to harm Australia’s natural environment, including:

  1. Recent biosecurity performance with respect to exotic organisms with potential to harm the natural environment detected since 2000 and resulting from accidental or illegal introductions from overseas:
    1. The extent of detected incursions, including numbers, locations and species, and their potential future environmental, social and economic impacts
    2. The likely pathways of these recently detected incursions and any weaknesses in biosecurity that have facilitated their entry and establishment,
    3. The extent of quarantine interceptions of exotic organisms with potential to harm the natural environment, including numbers, locations, species and potential impacts.
    4. Any reviews or analyses of detected incursions or interceptions relevant to the environment and any changes in biosecurity processes resulting from those reviews or analyses.
  2. Australia’s state of preparedness for new environmental incursions, including:
    1. The extent to which high priority risks for the environment have been identified in terms of both organisms and pathways, and accorded priority in relation to other biosecurity priorities.
    2. The process for determining priorities for import risk analyses (IRAs) and the process for prioritising the preparation of these analyses.
    3. The current approach to contingency planning for high priority environmental risks and the process by which they were developed.
    4. The adequacy of current protocols and surveillance and their implementation for high-priority environmental risks.
    5. Current system for responses to newly detected incursions, the timeliness and adequacy, and the role of ecological expertise.
    6. The extent to which compliance monitoring and enforcement activities are focused on high priority environmental risks.
    7. The adequacy of reporting on incursions, transparency in decision-making and engagement of the community.
    8. Institutional arrangements for environmental biosecurity and potential improvements
  3. Any other related matter

Committee referred: Senate Environment and Communications References Committee

Reporting date: 3 December 2014

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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.

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Our protected areas are being trashed, trampled, choked and polluted by an onslaught of invaders. Invasive species are already the overwhelming driver of our animal extinction rate, and are expected to cause 75 of the next 100 extinctions.

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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]