WA Auditor General Performance Audit Report on Managing Plant and Animal

Pests…

OAGWA looked at how well government pest management

programs were being run, focussing on the Departments of

Food and Agriculture (DAFWA), Conservation and Wildlife

(DPaW) and Fisheries (DoF).

OAGWA surveyed 692 private land managers as part of

the audit.JANUARY 2014

While the legislative framework seems to be in place,

it just hasn’t been implemented yet.

The lead agency, DAFWA, is following an ‘invasion

management model’ used by others, but is struggling

to get it running well.

There are information gaps, and like other cross-

agency programs, there seems to be a bit of agency

‘siloing’ and competition going on.

WHAT DOES IT SAY.

JANUARY 2014

Cross-agency governance bodies were set up ages ago

(2008), but don’t really seem to be working that well.

The AG found that they still haven’t managed to pull

together :

• a strategic plan for pest management,

• a current picture of pest impact, or

• a risk-based approach to prioritising activity.

Wow.

WHAT ELSE DOES IT SAY.

JANUARY 2014

The AG was particularly critical of the lack of

monitoring and enforcement by DAFWA, and worried

that this was weakening the willingness of private land

managers to take voluntarily responsibility for pest

management.

In the last 10 years, compliance notices issued has

fallen by 99 percent. Over the same time period,

DAFWA funding has been cut, with a 32 percent

reduction in staff numbers.

WHAT ELSE DOES IT SAY.

JANUARY 2014

• It looks pretty bad.

• Sounds like the Auditor General found that WA has starved on-ground pest management activities, while failing to set up an effective governance framework.

• It is hard to see that private land managers are going to put up with it for long.

The comments on these slides are the views of Tim Kirby, Sydney.

You should always read the report itself before putting any money on the line.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN.

Tim Kirby, Sydney CA, CIA, LA-EMS

au.linkedin.com/in/timkirbysydney

JANUARY 2014