00:00Fire ants are one of the world's worst invasive pests and unfortunately there is a persistent
00:07outbreak of them in South East Queensland and the risk is that if they're not controlled
00:11in South East Queensland they could spread to the whole of Australia and the reason they're
00:16such a threat they're a very tiny ant but they pack a huge sting if they get on you
00:22they all sting at once if you disturb one of their nests and actually the anaphylaxis
00:26rate with fire ants is about three times that of B so dealing with those fire ants is just
00:31being left up to local councils to local businesses and residents that is not good enough that is
00:36something which is a massive hole in the program we are going to keep seeing fire ants getting
00:41through the cracks turning up in new locations last year there was a fire ant queen that turned
00:46up in Melbourne we just had one turn up in Perth this will keep happening if the federal government
00:51and governments around Australia do not step in with the extra funding which they know is needed
00:56except the issue right now is bureaucracy is getting in the way of getting money on the
01:00ground to deal with an uncontrolled highly dense outbreak and that puts all of Australia
01:05at risk of a permanent fire ant future
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