A division of the Liberal Party of Australia
LAUNCH OF THE HYMENACHNE MANAGEMENT MANUAL
15 November, 2006
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Thanks very much Murray and thanks for the introduction. Perhaps the most important part of the introduction was what I formerly was, and that was Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation and in the Conservation part I was very involved with weeds around Australia and hence my passion for supporting those who are doing something about an infestation that is a great disaster for Australia. But, Murray, thanks very much for that. You must be enjoying yourself here today, I mean hymenachne is a terrible problem for all of us, a terrible problem for you but compared to your problems the Land Protection Council in trying to find out who your Minister is; Or with your involvement in the Grains Council wondering about (a) the Australian Wheat Board and (b) the single desk and all that, I guess you will find today a walk in the park. Thanks very much for the introduction. It is good to have people of Murray’s calibre involved in the fight against weeds through his role on the Queensland Land Protection Council.
Can I also acknowledge Trudy Baker on behalf of Anne Kirk from the Capricorn Coast Pest Management Group who are, I understand the sponsors of this conference here today. I think it is appropriate that the conference be here. I originally would have thought that it might have been more appropriately held in Ingham or Tully or Innisfail where there is a lot of hymenachne but I understand you actually introduced it down in this area so it’s probably appropriate that you should be hosting a major get together to try to work out what we can do about hymenachne.
But, ladies and gentlemen, it’s my indeed honour today to launch this manual, the Hymenachne Management Manual. It should be compulsory reading for every land manager and land owner east of the Great Divide and across the north of Australia. I particularly want to acknowledge Kate Charleston who, as I understand, was the principal author of the book and I know she and a lot of her team from the South Johnstone DPI and NRM Group had a contribution to this, and Nick as has been mentioned. But Kate, congratulations on a very useful and well prepared manual bringing together a lot of material on hymenachne. Hymenachne as you will all be well aware is a real disaster when it comes to our waterways, our creeks, our swamps and wetlands particularly to sugar and other agricultural crops and it also has an impact on our native flora and therefore on our native fauna as well. It affects fish stocks and breeding and in an agricultural sense, it will have an impact on, particularly the agricultural pursuits in northern Australia, not to mention the uncostable impact it will have on our environment.
As a couple of previous speakers have mentioned weeds are a very, very serious problem for Australia. $4 billion is the amount the CRC estimated weeds cost our country. About $1.5 billion annually, this is each year, goes in actual direct costs in trying to address weeds in Australia and it is estimated by the CRC through some very good research they did a couple of years ago that an additional $2.5 billion was the cost to Australia in lost production because of weeds.
So, every year, weeds cost Australia $4 billion, and that doesn’t take into account, as Tony pointed out, the cost to our environment. I am delighted that our Government has, over the years, been involved in putting a lot of money into weeds and weeds management and eradication. Weeds generally is the responsibility of State Governments and Local Governments as land managers in Australia. The Commonwealth has no constitutional responsibility or power in land management and so weed management has traditionally been the purview, the responsibility of State and Local Governments and they have passed that on, perhaps appropriately, to land owners as. But the Commonwealth Government has recognised over the last few years that weeds are a national problem, something that costs the country $4 billion has to be a national problem, and through the Natural Heritage Trust we have over a period of years put some $24.5 million into the fight against weeds and more recently, just before the last election, and I was proud to be involved in this, the Government committed itself to an additional $44.4 million over the next 5 years for a programme called “Defeating the Weed Menace”. That programme provides for national weeds management coordination across the whole of Australia. The national Weeds Management Coordinator is a bloke named John Thorp from Tasmania and I know many of you have met him because he was up here launching a Program with me a couple of years ago.
As well as that, that money has gone into development of the National Weed Strategy. In 1999 the a list of the 20 worst weeds for Australia was determined and named to be Weeds Of National Significance or WONS as the acronym is. Those 20 very invasive weeds, and I think they are listed in one of the booklets up the back, are a real problem. We do have national coordinators right throughout Australia for each of these WONS and I am delighted to recognise Ann Doak, who many of you again would know, who has done excellent work in her role as Coordinator of the Pond Apple and Hymenachne Management Group. I understand that Nick Stipis is the Chair of that Hymenachne Management Group and Nick is going to speak to you later, I see from the programme. Who better, of course, to be in charge of that Group than a cane farmer from Tully who bought some cattle property to commence cane farming up there. Hymenachne was already growing on the land when Nick acquired it and Nick, I understand, has had a very tough battle in the recent years to overcome hymenachne. I am sure he will tell you about it.
The importance of the Defeating the Weeds Programme was recognised by the fact that just recently the Australian Government provided some $800,000.00 for three projects particularly directed at hymenachne. Those 3 projects were first of all, to devise practical approaches to address the problem of hymenachne, the second was a project to develop and implement a national communications plan to educate land owners on just what a problem it is and how it can be addressed, and the third project that received direct funding was a project to implement a control programme in far North Queensland. So, those funds have come from the Defeating the Weeds Menace Programme, that $44 million programme.
What, I understand from the reading I’ve done, that you need to do to address hymenachne is that first of all you need to identify and prioritise the problem. Then you need to determine control options, then to develop a financial plan to address the problem, then to look at a schedule of activities and then to monitor the progress of those activities and importantly in this area then, to follow up what has been started.
Ladies and gentlemen, if they are the steps that need to be addressed, then that is exactly what this Manual does. Again I give credit to the author for going through very carefully a lot of other material and putting in a great deal of other independent thought and research to give us the measures that need to be taken. There are some very good case studies in the Manual and if you wonder how I knew so much about Nick and where he comes from and what he does, I know that because there’s a case study in the Manual about him. I always find those case studies are very, very useful because it allows land managers to actually look at what some others have done and have been able to achieve, if others have been able to achieve it, it means that we can all achieve it.
This manual, as well as being very useful, very scientifically based, very well put together has passed what I always class as "the politicians’ test". If it passes the politicians’ test it’s a very good manual. What is the politicians’ test? Well, politicians are pretty simple people, they don’t understand much and if they can read a manual like this and understand it then it must be a good manual. I’ve had a look at it, I can understand it, I can read it, it’s very easy to read, it’s very well put together, it’s got lots of colour photos, which is always good for politicians but they do tell a story. It’s particularly well constructed, it’s something that is readable not something that you should just take home and put on the shelf and never look at again. It’s something you can look at, can follow, can understand and if you do follow some of the suggestions in there, some of the plans, some of the strategies in there we can make an impact on the hymenachne problem.
One of the things that I’ve mentioned to Murray and John Salmon, a councillor from the Fitzroy Council here, both of whom I know are graziers and there are other graziers in this room as well, is how you address the dichotomy between the graziers who find this to be a very, very useful pasture for their cattle and the agriculturalists and the environmentalists who find this introduced species a real disaster. It is something that I think needs to be resolved. Murray mentioned that on his Land Protection Council there is a divergence of opinion. Those divergences really do have to be looked at and some resolution achieved. It has been a declared weed in various categories right throughout all States of Australia and so it is a weed that has to be managed but again we have to keep in mind those graziers who still feel and believe that it is a very useful feed for cattle.
I also noted in having a look at this manual that there is an Australian, a native hymenachne, which apparently is not quite as invasive as the introduced species and apparently the native just lives around the north and one wonders whether there is some opportunity for graziers to perhaps introduce the native hymenachne. Whether that would be a solution and whether it would be less invasive I don't know. And one has to be careful because it’s those simple thoughts with grasses that in the past have got us into so much trouble. So I wouldn’t take too much notice of a politician's suggestion but still it is something that I think might be researched.
One other thing I noticed in looking at this Manual and some other material, which gives me some concern, is that there is a publication dated 2001 which in its executive summary says there is about 1,000 hectares of hymenachne in Australia. I understand from more recent research (and some of the speakers today have mentioned it) there are 5,000 hectares of hymenachne in Australia. If those figures are true, it means that in the last 5 years we have gone backwards by some 4,000 hectares and if that’s correct, that is a real problem. Because it is not a new weed. It was in 1999 declared to be a Weed of National Significance and if we’ve gone backwards since then, it really is of very significant concern.
I will just finalise, ladies and gentlemen, by making mention to the CRC for Weed Management which Dr Tony Grice spoke about. Rachel McFadyen and her team and the Board of that CRC have done excellent work. I was disappointed to hear just a few days ago that the funding had not been granted for the continuation of that CRC. It's unfortunate and it gets a bit technical because the CRCs are a program which are supposed to have commercial, financial and other involvement and to come up with commercial outcomes and sometimes these public good CRCs, particularly ones like the CRC for Weed Management doesn't quite fit the rules. It has been funded for seven or eight years, I forget the exact details, but the funding is coming to an end. What that means is that all of those scientists who've been involved in that work will start dispersing around the country or even overseas and we lose the expertise that CRC has built up. I understand from talking to Dr McFadyen, that they are looking at a different approach and perhaps a different approach to the guidelines and criteria needed for CRCs will help fund a new weeds associated CRC. But that doesn't happen for another couple of years and so there's going to be a bit of a gap of two years in between.
I'm talking to Dr McFadyen about to see if I can use what little influence I have to try to get the Government to fund the CRC for an extra two years until the new program can come in. But that's work in progress. Can I suggest to you all, that you can help by contacting your local Federal Member of Parliament no matter who it is and perhaps some of the Senators as well and just indicate that you believe that CRC has done a good job and should continue to be funded.
So there we are, that's the end of the political urgings to you all. The CRC has been doing great work and we do need to continue that on. There is, as I say, $44 million of Government money under a program addressing weeds. The CRC program is from a different Government Department, but the Government has acknowledged it has a concern about weeds with the $44 million allocated and so my approach to the Minister for Education who deals with CRCs, is that as one arm of Government believes it to be a very serious problem, then we should make sure the other arm of Government continues to help in addressing the issue.
So Ladies and Gentlemen it is with a great deal of honour for me personally and with a great deal of pleasure that I officially launch this Management Manual. It will I think be very useful in highlighting the problems and for those who do read and follow it, for addressing the problems and doing something positive about it. We want to make sure that in another five years we're not back here having a conference and finding that the 1000 hectares has increased beyond 5000 to 10000 hectares. If you read this manual, do what it suggests then I believe that we can control and eventually eradicate Hymenachne from Australia. Thanks very much and I officially launch the Manuel.