Federal Senator For Queensland Pauline Hanson’s Catching Cane Toad Plan Has Merit

Victor P Taffa

Federal Senator For Queensland Pauline Hanson’s Catching Cane Toad Plan has merit however the price should have been $100.00 and not 10 Cents.

Former US President Ronald Reagan once said that the “Best form of Welfare is a Job.”

Value of a person to catch small slippery Cane Toads should be far higher than 10 Cents.

If people were offered $100.00 per Cane Toad then the incentive would be far greater to undertake what is needed to be done.

 

Rather than laugh at this plan solving this problem has merit. Pestilence has been and still is a problem to our Australian Farmers who put food on our tables for us to eat.

Pestilence

Cane Toads, Prickly Pear, Queensland Fruit Fly and Rabbits are just some of the pestilence that has afflicted various Australian States since Colonisation in 1788.

Cane Toads

Cane toads were introduced to Australia from Hawaii in June 1935 by the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations, now the Sugar Research Australia, in an attempt to control the native grey-backed Cane Beetle (Dermolepida Albohirtum) and French’s Beetle (Lepidiota Frenchi).

These beetles are native to Australia and they are detrimental to sugar cane crops, which are a major source of income for Australia.

Adult cane beetles eat the crop’s leaves, but the main problem is the larvae, which feed on the roots. Adult cane beetles have a heavy exoskeleton and their eggs and larva are often buried underground, making them difficult to exterminate.

Conventional methods of pest control, such as pesticide use, would eradicate harmless species of insects as well, making it an unsatisfactory method.

Cane toads were to replace the use of pesticides like arsenic, pitch and copper.

Success of using the moth Cactoblastis Cactorum in controlling Prickly Pear in Australia also contributed to hopes for the cane toad.

Prickly Pear

According to Peter Luck’s book ‘This Fabulous Century’ given to Editor Victor P Taffa in 1979 Prickly Pear, Opuntia Inennis was introduced to Australia as a Pot Plant in 1839 and grown at Scone, New South Wales. By 1916 the Prickly Pear was increasing at the rate of a Million acres a year and threatened to destroy all pastures and arable land in Queensland and Northern New South Wales.

In 1920 the newly established Prickly Pear Board sent a team of experts to America in search of insects to hopefully attack and destroy the pest.

In 1924 scientists were able to bring insects to Australia to eradicate Prickly Pear. Cactoblastis Cactorum introduced from the Argentine in 1925. Results were spectacular. Grubs ate out the heart of the pear. Some farmers were sceptical of the cactoblastis eggs that were supplied to them in tiny quills and threw them away. Farmers who did not throw them away were amazed as to how quickly the 10-year scourge was demolished.

As the ground came back into view the timber was burnt and crops planted again.

Queensland Fruit Fly

Queensland Fruit Fly (Bactrocera Tryoni) is a species of Tephritid Fruit Fly native to Australia.

Adult flies are about 5 to 8 mm in length in adult stage. Their larvae hatch in various fruit species, causing significant damage to crops.

Queensland Fruit Fly causes damage to crops in South Australia and Tasmania as much as in Queensland.

Rabbits

According to Peter Luck’s book ‘This Fabulous Century’ given to Editor Victor P Taffa in 1979 Rabbits were imported to Geelong, Victoria from England in 1859. Numbers were controlled initially however soon they bred to be of plague proportions.

Federal Government ignored the answer to the problem and did not introduce Myxomatosis to Australia.

Eventually Myxomatosis was introduced and the rabbit plague was brought control.

Given the history of pestilence in Australia the solution to Cane Toad and Queensland Fruit Fly requires greater thought and cost than asking people to catch them and be paid 10 cents for each Cane Toad.

Rugby League State Of Origin

Queensland Rugby League State of Origin team are Nicknamed the Cane Toads.

Senator Hanson’s suggestion of people being paid to catch Cane Toads for 10 Cents can only motivate the New South Wales Rugby League Team to defeat Queensland in this year’s State of Origin series.

Rugby League State of Origin is an annual 3 match series played between New South Wales and Queensland.