CANBERRA, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Greater cooperation and transparency are needed to eradicate red imported fire ants from Australia, a Senate inquiry has found.

The Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport on Thursday handed down its findings from a six-month inquiry into Australia's response to the spread of invasive fire ants.

It described the red imported fire ant (RIFA) as Australia's greatest current biosecurity challenge, but said there was hope they could be eradicated with greater government transparency and more cooperation with the private sector.

"The consequence of a broader outbreak is severe, affecting agriculture, native species, and human health," Matt Canavan, the chair of the Senate committee, wrote in the report.

Native to South America, the RIFA was first detected in Australia in the north-eastern city of Brisbane in 2001, and has since been found in Western Australia, New South Wales and the island state of Tasmania.

The government's 2023-2027 response plan for the ants estimates they are capable of establishing colonies in 99 percent of mainland Australia where they could cause structural problems for infrastructure assets by nesting underneath them, damage crops and agriculture machinery, and significantly reduce biodiversity.

According to a separate report published by independent think tank The Australia Institute on Wednesday, the pest species will cost the Australian economy 2.5 billion Australian dollars (1.6 billion U.S. dollars) annually by 2035 if not contained.

The Senate inquiry made 10 recommendations, including reviewing the current level of funding for the National Fire Ant Eradication Program, establishing a Cooperative Research Centre to bring together diverse expertise on the species and improving transparency of fire ant response efforts.

"This report finds that there is a severe lack of transparency in the plans to eradicate red imported fire ants, and more cooperation with the non-government sector should be undertaken to ensure that any governmental response is leveraging off the widest amount of knowledge available," Canavan wrote.

Murray Watt, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, in January announced that federal, state and territory governments had agreed to commit a combined 592.8 million AUD (380.6 million dollars) in funding over the next three years to the National Fire Ant Eradication Program. Enditem

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