QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Ms COLLINS (Franklin—Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) (15:19): I thank the member for New England for that question. As I outlined yesterday, the timeframe was that we first detected the red imported fire ants on 23 September as part of routine surveillance. The New South Wales department was advised the next day and activities commenced, and the initial site treatment was completed by 28 September.

That included the direct nest injection to ensure the nest was destroyed and treated, in terms of the cracks and crevices. Ms COLLINS: I can assure the member for New England that we are taking this very seriously as a government, and we're working very closely with the New South Wales department and government in relation to this detection. We are undertaking further surveillance, tracing and baiting, and the testing to date has shown that these ants are not related.

The genetic analysis confirms that this is not from South-East Queensland, which is, of course, as the member for New England would know, the only active infestation of fire ants in Australia. So this has clearly come in from elsewhere, and we're doing the tracing, the surveillance and the baiting. At this stage, I can confirm there's no evidence of any spread beyond the site.