"WWF Australia certainly recognizes that invasive species — and that includes feral animals like cats and foxes and camels and cane toads and rabbits — are without a doubt one of the most serious threats to native biodiversity that there is.

"Along with land clearing and climate change they'd be right up there," she said.

"They are feral animals and they don't belong in this country and they've had an incredible impact on the environment in the time they've been here.

"Do we think there's a need for them to be here? No, we don't. Do we think it's realistic that every last one of them can be culled and eradicated? I don't think it would be a bad thing if that could happen but it's highly unlikely."

Shultz acknowledged, however, that some animal rights activists would be outraged by his committee's recommendations, charging that they are cruel and inhumane.

"The animal liberationists, as an example, gave evidence to the committee and one of the groups said the introduced exotic species should be allowed to evolve into our natural ecosystem, even at the expense of endangered native species.

"Now that's outrageous and my committee certainly won't be advocating that.

"What we'll be advocating is the total eradication, where possible, of introduced exotic species in the interest of protecting our native flora and fauna.

"I don't have any sympathy as an individual for those groups who think that it's fine to allow feral animals to decimate our native flora and fauna simply because they have an ideological view about the way in which some of these animals are killed," he said.

Shultz said the cost of just a specific few of the pest animal species to agriculture was estimated to be around $720 million ($547 million U.S.) a year, but the figure would be much higher if they were all taken into account.

The WWF puts the overall cost of foreign invasive animal and plant species — also a major problem — at $4.7 billion a year.

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