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Stinging deaths, back yard poisons and billions spent: model predicts Australia's fire ants future

Stinging deaths, back yard poisons and billions spent: model predicts Australia's fire ants future

The Guardian27-03-2025

Australian households will spend $1.03bn every year to suppress fire ants and cover related medical and veterinary costs, with about 570,800 people needing medical attention and 30 likely deaths from the invasive pest's stings, new modelling shows.
The Australia Institute research breaks down the impact of red imported fire ants (Rifa) by electorate, with the seats of Durack and O'Connor in Western Australia, Mayo in South Australia and Blair in Queensland the hardest hit if the ants become endemic.
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Drawing on census data and earlier studies about the impact of Rifa, the new figures show that pesticides and pest control pose the highest financial cost to households annually, $581m, followed by medical expenses of $233m and veterinary costs of $215m. A co-author of the report warned the 'huge' volume of pesticide needed to fight the ants will affect the environment.
The new modelling doubles an earlier estimate that put total household costs at $536m, and has concerned experts who say individuals may take eradication into their own hands.
In the WA seat of Durack alone, the forecasting shows more than 60,000 people would be stung, 1,209 of whom would develop an anaphylactic reaction. Almost 19,000 dogs and cats would require the attention of a vet after being stung.
In the marginal Queensland electorates of Blair, held by Labor's Shayne Neumann; Dickson, held by Peter Dutton; and the Greens-held Ryan, the annual costs of Rifa total $21.1m:
Blair: $1.7m in medical costs, $1.5m in vet costs and $5.1m in household pesticide costs.
Dickson: $1.4m in medical costs, $1.2m in vet costs and $4m in household pesticide costs.
Ryan: $1.5m in medical costs, $1.3m in vet costs and $3.4m in household pesticide costs.
The ants would create an additional 2.1m visits to vets nationwide – a figure that comes after the Invasive Species Council warned 'a lot' of pets are suspected to have been killed by fire ant stings, including a puppy found dead on a fire ant nest in Greenbank about 15 months ago.
Rifa are managed over an 830,000-hectare zone of south-eastern Queensland by the national fire ant eradication program. It uses a combination of bait and direct nest injection to suppress and eliminate the pest.
Given their rapid spread, Rifa may increasingly be managed by stand-alone households which, according to the forecasting, would each spend $83 on pesticides each year.
The Invasive Species Council's Reece Pianta said if eradication funding was not ramped up, the modelling suggested Australia could follow in the footsteps of the US.
'Fire ant eradication failure means Australian households could get slugged with a $580m bill each year as they take fire ant control into their own hands.
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'In the United States, where fire ants cannot be eradicated, residents in fire ant zones find their neighbours using a range of harsh or off-label chemical treatments to control these killer invaders,' he said.
'Parents are not going to just sit by and let their kids be stung by these tiny killers, so it's no surprise we hear of stories in the USA of petrol being poured on nests, or uncontrolled chemical use.'
He said the new financial modelling for suppression alone amounted to as much as the current four-year fire ant eradication program budget of $592.8m every year – for ever.
A 2021 government study found that governments and individuals would need to spend $200m to $300m annually over the next 10 years to stamp out Rifa and avoid ongoing annual costs of at least $2bn caused by the pest. The planned funding was only half that amount, the council said.
Research director at the Australian Institute and the report's co-author, Rod Campbell, said the figures showed the economic case for fire ant eradication was 'a no-brainer'.
'Behind the dollar figures though, is what the money would be spent on – pesticides.
'Australia needs to eradicate fire ants urgently not just to save money for households, but to avoid huge volumes of pesticides going into our back yards, fields and bushland.'
Rifa were first detected in Queensland in 2001 and can kill people, native animals and livestock as well as damage infrastructure and ecosystems.

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  • The Guardian

Crossbenchers call for federal intervention after ‘deeply shocking' revelations about prison deaths

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GRAHAM GRANT: With ideas so barmy even Lord Sugar would sack her, next year Scots voters will have their own chance to tell Kate Forbes and the SNP...'YOU'RE FIRED!'
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GRAHAM GRANT: With ideas so barmy even Lord Sugar would sack her, next year Scots voters will have their own chance to tell Kate Forbes and the SNP...'YOU'RE FIRED!'

Kate Forbes showed off her renowned business acumen last week when she said businesses could avoid hefty rates by setting up in cupboards. It's a barmy idea which would see her kicked off The Apprentice – irascible Lord Sugar wouldn't put up with her weapons-grade nonsense. For bar and restaurant owners desperate for respite from a punitive rates regime, Ms Forbes's less than sage counsel was particularly galling. Operating from the confines of a cupboard is a non-starter for them, but then they've long been little more than an afterthought for the SNP. Some of them had fallen for the Deputy First Minister's act as someone who understood the needs of entrepreneurs and business owners. She was seen as the acceptable face of insular, Left-wing nationalism, as she seemed to realise that thriving firms lead to a stronger economy. 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Shops will pay £9.1million more than those south of the Border, while offices will pay an additional £6.4million and hotels face an extra £2.5million bill. In its 2021 manifesto, the SNP promised to ensure that 'the largest businesses pay the same combined poundage in Scotland as in England'. Many firms are also struggling with the UK Government's hike in National Insurance employers' contributions, which began in April. For some, Ms Forbes's bizarre statement triggered flashbacks to the dark days of the Covid era when Nicola Sturgeon said the bottom of classroom doors could be sawn off to boost ventilation. Back in 2019, Ms Sturgeon had claimed Scotland remained 'imprisoned' in the UK and Boris Johnson was effectively locking the country 'in a cupboard' by refusing another referendum on breaking up Britain. Cupboards loom large in Nationalist ideology, but Ms Forbes is just as much of a true believer in independence as John Swinney and his colleagues, and everything she says about the economy must be seen through that prism. We shouldn't forget that she once described former SNP Commons group leader Ian Blackford as a pensions 'expert' after he pumped out a stream of blatant disinformation about the UK Government's supposed liability for bankrolling Scottish pensions in the event of independence. What does that say about Ms Forbes's judgment, or lack of it? She was happy enough to stand by as these distortions and untruths circulated on social media – so why should we trust anything she says now? As we reported last week, Ms Forbes also questioned why we seem to be fixated with income tax rates in Scotland. 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The SNP's tax-grabs are all in the name of what shamed former Finance Secretary Derek Mackay once confusingly called 'progressivity' - but the only thing the economy is progressing towards is an abyss of the SNP's own creation. Mr Mackay is remembered mainly for quitting hours before the Scottish Budget in 2020 after it emerged he had bombarded a teenage boy with inappropriate online messages. But he also admitted he'd never heard of the Laffer Curve, which dictates that revenues can go up if taxes are cut. Luckily, Tory MSP Mr Fraser was on hand to explain the concept. There's little evidence that anyone in the Cabinet has a better grasp of the basics than Mr Mackay, including Ms Forbes. Yet there's no shortage of guidance from the phalanx of spin doctors on the SNP government payroll. The average £100,000 bill for each of its 17 special advisers was slipped out under cover of the Hamilton by-election last Thursday – amounting to nearly £2million in the last financial year. Which one of them helped to craft Ms Forbes's bilge about cupboards, assuming any of them did, is unknown, but they did provide some entertainment – even if it was a blend of black comedy and high farce. The bleak punchline is that we are being led by a combination of the clueless and the incompetent. But at the Scottish election next May we'll have the chance to tell Ms Forbes and her cohorts what Lord Sugar would doubtless say, with some gusto: 'You're fired!'

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