The cost of failing to effectively manage invasive species in NSW could be blown out by 15 times in the next 6 years unless major reforms are made. This would increase the annual economic impacts from invasive species in NSW from $1.9 billion up to $29.7 billion in a worse case scenario by the year 2030.
A preliminary report into the NSW Invasive Species Plan, by the Natural Resources Commission has found widespread dysfunction with how the State is handling the threats of invasive species. The report included 33 key findings and 71 recommendations that the Government must act on to prevent an explosion in impacts from invasive species.
Preliminary Report and Government media release
Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment Sue Higginson said "The urgency of this situation couldn't be any clearer, the Government must take immediate steps without waiting longer for a whole of Government response,"
"Just as we have seen with other urgent issues, I'm genuinely concerned that the Government wants to process this report in their own time. The reality is that the environment cannot be expected to wait while the Minns Labor Government figures out what parts of this report are politically convenient for them."
"The NSW Invasive Species Plan is not the problem, rather it is unsupported through the system with a lack of strategic, risk based prioritisation, and inconsistent leadership and coordination of cross-tenure programs,"
"The Minns Government has repeatedly compromised the environment for the sake of industry and politics, but this report lays bare just how dysfunctional it has been allowed to become. The fact that invasive species management is only seen through a lens of primary production drastically underestimates the real value of healthy environments, and will cause both industry and the environment to suffer in the near term,"
"The high profile reintroduction of aerial shooting of horses in the Kosciuszko National Park is a necessary and important program, and we can only hope it's come soon enough to prevent the extinction of those threatened species at direct risk of extinction from feral horses. However, programs can not operate in isolation from other critical actions that must be taken to prevent native species extinctions at the hands of introduced feral species,"
"We are seeing right now, in Northern NSW with the Red Fire Ant incursion, just how much of a risk invasive species pose. Once these species become established, and without proper care for the whole of system needs, NSW is already on a trajectory of seeing our environment and primary production decimated. This is a wake-up call, and Premier Minns needs to hear it from his comfortable urban electorate," Ms Higginson said.
