An auditor general’s report on Queensland’s biosecurity has revealed poor leadership, bureaucracy and a lack of any clear strategy was a key factor in the spread of invasive species like fire ants, now spread across 700,000 hectares of south east Queensland and has cost $644 million.

The report from the Auditor General was critical of Biosecurity Queensland and the Department of Agriculture and Fishers and said that its current strategy failed to address key challenges and did not define what its priorities were.

“They do not monitor and report on the outcomes of their activities across the biosecurity system and did not report on how many invasive species they had eradicated, how many they were trying to eradicate and how many they failed to eradicate. There was no reporting on how much funding was spent or the economic benefits,” the report said.

Staff within Biosecurity Queensland were even unclear about the role of the department.

Although Biosecurity Queensland was said to take a proactive approach it did not actively co-ordinate a state-wide approach across entities to manage established invasive species and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries has not clearly determined how it would effectively deliver leadership.