I wish to bring to your attention the increasing possibility that someone will ultimately take another land holder or land manager to court for the costs incurred to them in the control or eradication of invasive weed species. The precedent is the success of fire damages claims, and it will soon become aparrent that the costs of weeds, in control/eradication, along with the loss of pasture/native bushland, are probably considerably greater than those of fire. I am an active member of my local landcare group, and we are working hard to control, and hopefully eradicate, Spanish Heath from a small area of native bush important for survival of the forty-spootted pardalote and the swift parrot. This is painstaking work, and my involvement has only broadened my understanding of how great a threat weed invasion is to our native bush and pasture. While I applaud the growing appreciation of the threats posed by introduced vertabrate species I am acutely aware that the greatest threat to native animals is loss of habitat, and that weed invasion is a major contributor to this problem. I am also aware of the problems associated by introduced fungi and can only assume that other, less visible introductions, such as invertabrates,virus etc. could also be responsible for greater loss of habitat and erosion of the native biomass.