Triccy:
Our next speaker, guys, has found her voice in recent months leading the charge on the poison being sprayed, raining down on the greater Brisbane region: Sarah McGuire.

Sarah McGuire:
Thank you everyone. I'll keep it pretty brief. I know everyone's been here a long time already, and you've heard pretty much all the scientific information from Dr. Connie Turney who has just basically told you, yeah, this whole programme is one massive unscientific experiment. Well, probably the second largest experiment in this country after Covid, but they have no idea that these chemicals are going to work. It just keeps going and going, and the ants just get worse and worse. So I am actually here just because I want to shed light on this matter. I mean, I'm just a mom of two kids in Samford Valley. I'm waking up one morning and there's these choppers just flying around our valley, dumping these chemicals into all our creeks and waterways. It was only because a couple of locals and myself went up to these waterways and we found these corn grits everywhere.

It was in the water, it was on the rocks. So we took samples and sent 'em off for independent testing. We spent $4,000 so far on those water tests. And shortly after that, I contacted Save the Bees and I said, 'you've got to help us. Something bad is going on here. This doesn't seem right.' And then I found out that this programme is planning on coming into our properties without our consent to chuck these chemicals all over my garden where I grow organic veggies. And I just said, this isn't happening to me. No way.

So Save the Bees and I set up the campaign, Stop the Toxic Fire Ant Programme, and we're advocating now for everyone that's against this toxic programme. Like I said, I got a speech, but I'm not going to read it all. I'm just literally going to tell you where we're at with the campaign at the moment.

So after we got the positive test results, the programme actually admitted to us in Samford, they made a mistake and they put the wrong chemical into our creeks, a chemical that should never go into waterways because it's highly toxic to aquatic life. And then a week later, I went up to that creek and a these's creatures were dead. There was dead moss everywhere. There was a sick lizard. There was no life up there. And it was just like the water just had this scummy top to it, like this oily top because we've since found out that these corn grits are GMO as well, and the soybean oil is GMO.

And so all this stuff is going into our soil, into our waterways, and it's just indiscriminate. They're just putting these chemicals where we don't even have fire ants. They've actually said that areas like Logan now are as heavily infested with fire ants as places like Texas, and yet they're now telling us on the ABC News that six people will die a year from fire ant bites.

I mean, this is a joke. I mean these fire ants, they've been in this country for 30 years and not one person has died from fire ants. They've been in America for a hundred years. And in that time, 85 people have apparently died, mostly anaphylaxis, but that's less than one per year. You've got more chance of being struck by lightning than dying from a fire ant (bite). I mean, in comparison, people in America die from bees 75 on average a year. And like I said, not hardly one person a year dies from fire ants. So we really don't need to be frightened of these fire ants and we have to accept they are going to be part of our future. They can dump as much chemical as they like. They are never going to get rid of these fire ants.

So what I just want people to do is be able to band together and we need to be strong as a group because this government is planning on spending half a billion dollars on this current programme that's due to run till 2027. They actually need this programme to run till 2032 because they think they're going to eradicate them in time for the Olympics.

But basically, as we said, they're never going to eradicate these ants. They're just dumping chemicals everywhere. For me, I feel it's all about the money. This has become a massive cash cow to Queensland. They've spent over a billion dollars in 20 years, and the ants are 20 times worse. So tell me that money could have gone towards our homeless crisis to much better things than this, and they've still got another half a billion dollars to spend. So we really should be saying to our politicians, this is not good enough. We want our money.

Our taxpayers money needs to be spent on way better things than this. So we are demanding from this campaign that this programme is immediately suspended and stopped. We want a comprehensive environmental risk assessment done because that has not been done to date. We want a safer, sustainable, non-toxic alternative for managing the fire ants where they are a problem.

And we do have that at the moment. Some of you may have heard of Trevor Hold. He's being helping us with this campaign. He's actually built the first ever non-toxic Fire Act killing machine in Australia. It's a hot water system, and he's proven that you can kill nests with this hot water system. It works really well, and we want the government to stop entering our properties without our consent. That is just unacceptable. I will not have them coming onto my property, but I am told I will be fined $18,000 and I could be arrested. I mean, I just want my land kept pure.

I've worked hard to have an organic garden. My kids, we live a low toxic lifestyle, and this programme is just wrecking all our rights to have a toxin-free home. We should feel safe and secure in our own home, not bullied into having these people come to our property and demand that we give them access.

So I am encouraging everyone to say no and have a reasonable excuse because this Biosecurity Act pretty much tramples over all our human rights. But there's one section, section 3, 3, 6. You are allowed a reasonable excuse. So I suggest everyone who's being affected, think of what your reasonable excuse is. Medical grounds are the strongest. And so get your reasonable excuse and make ...

Triccy:
... medical grounds. I have medical concerns. That's my reasonable excuse. It's privacy issues. You don't have to tell them, I have a medical condition. I do not give you consent to spray this land. You will not spray this land. I have a medical condition. They ask you what it is you say, Privacy Act. I don't have to declare my medical ailments to you. That's it. End of the story. And if it goes past that, they're going to be bloody brave to take you on when you've told 'em you've got medical conditions.

Third person
Trespassing onto property.

Sarah McGuire:
Yeah. Well, I'm going to come onto, we've actually got signs that we're selling that say no trespass, and they have all the legal cases on them. But this programme, honestly, it's like a steam train. It is going onto people's properties when they're not home, even jumping six foot fences and turning up with police and threatening people and bullying people. And then they have the nerve to say that me, that I'm bullying them because I'm asking them questions.

I've been put in the ABC News with Triccy at the last rally and told I'm an 'anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist' and I spoke about this subject microcephaly, and I never even mentioned it. They totally misrepresented me. But I'm not going to stop speaking. I will keep speaking out. I'm setting up an incorporated association and details of that will be coming soon. But if everybody becomes members, we can go to the government and say, look, there's thousands of us in this incorporated association, and we are demanding change and we are not accepting. [applause]

So basically, yeah, exercise your rights. Think of your reasonable excuse. Contact your MPs, bombard them with your complaints about this programme. Anyone that has an adverse event, you report it to the APVMA and your MP and the programme. Because they are telling us that we are only 1%. We are way more than 1% that's against this programme. I think they're just making that up and saying, oh, well, we went to this property, but you didn't even have permission. But they're saying that was given consent, so keep,

[audience member: I think they meant 100.]

So yeah, keep complaining. Keep writing letters and join our movement. Follow our Facebook page, check out our website, sign our petitions. We have two, one, we change one's a Queensland petition. There's one here at the back if you'd like to sign it and share your details with me and I'll keep you up to date with what's going on.

But yeah, together, we need to hold this government accountable. We need to ask for a commission of inquiry. At the very least, if they're not going to stop and yeah, we will not back down. We will not be silenced. So let's all stand together and fight for what matters. Thank you.