Urgency needed in pest control

This is no mere fire drill - the threat of fire ants remains high, and these insidious pests pose a very real risk to our state that we can no longer ignore for the sake of our farmers and our families in NSW.

This summer alone saw fire ant nests discovered twice within state lines.

Only last month, another fire ant nest was discovered - and mercifully destroyed - a mere 1.2 kilometres shy of the NSW border.

Yet despite these incursions, the funding and responses we need to stamp out these ants remain insufficient, and worse still, ineffective.

And they will remain so until we bring the real risk creators - that is, importers of risk - to account, and require them to pay their fair share of biosecurity dues.

Indeed, it is importers - incoming people and products - that first brought fire ants to our shores.

It is importers who have subsequently brought goods containing fire ants not once, not twice, but six times into our country since the year 2000.

And it is importers who do not pay their way in biosecurity costs, while farmers face the prospect of paying a double tax on biosecurity from July 1, if the biosecurity protection levy bill passes the Federal Parliament.

With a Senate Inquiry into the spread of fire ants due to deliver a report of its findings today, our message remains clear: Red imported fire ants must be eliminated from Australia, and now.

Risk creators need to step up to the plate to drive this effort, and farmers should not have to bear the brunt of the costs to protect our families, farms and food from these insidious pests.

The Productivity Commission, the Australian National University, the Office of Impact Analysis and even importers themselves oppose this proposed biosecurity tax on farmers.

So why aren't our calls for fairer funding being answered?