PLANT AND ANIMAL PESTS —
AUDITOR GENERAL'S REPORT
866. Hon PETER COLLIER to
the Minister for Agriculture and Food:
This question is asked on behalf of Hon
Dr Steve Thomas, who is on urgent parliamentary business.
I
refer to the Auditor General's follow-up report entitled ''Managing
the Impact of Plant and Animal Pests: Follow-Up'' of 31 August 2020,
which identified that there are currently 56 declared pest species of plants
and 30 declared pest species of animals.
(1) How many
species of plants and animals were on the equivalent list of pest species when
the government was elected in 2017?
(2) How many
species of plants and animals have been removed from the equivalent list since
the government was elected in 2017?
(3) Given that the minister's response to my
question yesterday indicated her focus on exotic pests and diseases and
apparent dismissal of the impact of endemic pests, has the minister and the
government abandoned any real attempt to control existing pest species on Western
Australian lands and waters?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the question.
(1) A review of
the declared pests was undertaken in 2016 with a focus on ensuring that species
declared under the former act qualified for listing under the new Biosecurity
and Agriculture Management Act. Any changes as a result of this review were
implemented in late 2016–early 2017.
(2) Since the
implementation of the 2016 declared pest review, the department has not
delisted any pest under the BAM act. Several species have, however, been
assessed for listing since 2017. These were either unlisted or their listing required review in light of new information.
Since 2017, the department has declared at least 16 species to section
12, ''Prohibited organisms'', and at least 11 species to section
22(2) of the BAM act as declared pests. This has included feral cats and Amazon
frogbit, highlighting the importance of these invasive species to the state in
supporting government, industry and community action.
(3) The
assumption of this question is without foundation. Although the member will be
disappointed to hear that we will not be
forming a hit squad to march on landowners in search of arum lilies, we have
considerably increased our funding to the recognised biosecurity groups
across the state to work with landowners to deal with these pests. We have also
allocated $28.6 million towards wild dog control.
I will repeat: government resources
are focused on protecting the state from the entry and establishment of new and establishing pests where the resources
are more effectively and efficiently used. The control and management of
widespread and established pests is the responsibility of landowners and is
best controlled through a community-coordinated approach.