The decision to declare buffel grass a Weed of National Significance has been delayed due to being a “unique and complex case”, despite it being identified as the weed with most current negative impacts.

The Nationally Established Weed Priorities Assessment Report makes clear that buffel grass met all the criteria to be recognised as one of the country's worst weeds.

Buffel grass was the highest ranked species in terms of current impacts, met the criteria for the nationally significant impacts threshold, found to have many feasible and socially acceptable actions that would improve management and high benefits from nationally coordinated actions. Considering all of this it is clear the political interference has disrupted the process where a species has been assessed as meeting the nationally recognised threshold, yet a decision has been deferred.

Alex Vaughan, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, Arid Lands Environment Centre

“They say it is complex, but it is straightforward, the weed that is having the greatest national negative impacts should be declared a weed of national significance"

“While Governments continue to deliberate and twiddle their thumbs, we have lost decades and landscapes across this continent have been destroyed and set on fire by ongoing buffel grass invasion. Governments spread buffel grass at scale, but we cannot keep making such dangerous and uninformed decisions in 2026.”

“We have been told consensus could not be reached, well that can’t be because it doesn’t meet the criteria, according to their own report, it does, so what is actually influencing this decision?”

“Pastoral industry lobbyists have been fighting tooth and nail to ensure there is no protection for nature from buffel grass, delaying this decision shows that the National Biosecurity Committee are bowing to them instead of listening to the science, tourism operators, First Nations communities, ranger groups, firies or affected communities.”

“The pastoral industry is buying time, but we will not be gaslit. Buffel grass is one of this continent's most catastrophic weeds. Buffel grass fuelled fires put human lives at risk, and the buffel grass bulldozer is clearing entire landscapes, pushing threatened species towards extinction and degrading significant and diverse First Nations cultural practices.”

“Pastoral lobby groups are promoting misinformation that national recognition will cripple their industry. It is a lie. We cannot currently eradicate buffel grass at scale. What we can do is learn from the tragedies of the past and stop making the problem worse.”