Invasion of tree-killing beetle exposes issues in national protocols

ABC NEWS (Australia)

When the tiny tree-killing beetle polyphagous shot hole borer arrived in Perth four years ago it wasn't just a headache for Western Australia. The invasion sparked a national emergency response, but authorities failed to eradicate the pest and experts say it exposed a glaring hole in Australia’s biosecurity measures.

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00:00at first the damage was slow to reveal itself but four years on and almost 5 000 trees lost

00:11some of perth's most iconic parks now look drastically bare an incomprehensible trail

00:18of destruction caused by a pest the size of a sesame seed

00:22the state and federal governments jointly funded a 57 million dollar effort to eradicate the

00:31shothole borer but in june authorities called off the race and stated it would take 18 months

00:39to get wa to a stage where it can manage the pest generally what happens after this transition phase

00:46is that national cost sharing approach disappears and it goes back to reverting

00:51only to state-based money and we simply don't have the resources to manage shothole borer

00:57along with all of the other invasive pests that we're already managing that's when experts predict

01:03the spread outside of perth and across the nullarbor is most likely leaving australia's native forests and

01:10horticultural industries vulnerable the wa government is funding three research projects to try to stop

01:17that from happening but some residents desperate to keep their trees refuse to wait for a silver bullet

01:27participating in citizen science trials injecting capsules of pesticides and fungicides into infested trees

01:35it's a disaster and we really got to marshal all our forces the eradication in wa has hasn't worked

01:47that doesn't mean to say that other states can't actually be successful the rise in global trade coupled

01:54with australia's isolation makes it more susceptible to invasive species the government is managing about

02:013 000 pests and it's costing the economy billions of dollars a year and that's increasing exponentially

02:08we have this great biosecurity system but it's it's stretched really thin so there's definitely

02:13a need for for increased funding in this space at the moment but as well as that i think there's

02:18there's a real need for us to be working smarter he says better information sharing and close partnerships

02:24with universities and industry is vital polyphagous shothole borer is is just one of many invasive

02:31species that are out there and will turn up in australia at some point and many of those species are going

02:35to be more damaging than polyphagous shothole borer so i think this is really urgent a lesson for the rest of

02:40the country

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