agriculture and wildlife

The Andrews Labor government has just failed a crucial test of its integrity in relation to threatened species listings and biodiversity governance. Immediately prior to losing office in December 2010, the Brumby Labor government had finalized listing the dingo as a threatened native taxon under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.

The current Labor government’s virtual trashing of that listing, through the reinstatement of a ‘wild-dog’ bounty, which directly panders to the Victorian Upper House Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party members, who were voted in on a relative handful of first preference votes, now casts a shadow over the Victorian Government’s commitment to biodiversity conservation.

On the early evening of Tuesday the 26 of May, the tranquil peace at Boneo was broken by the sounds of over 100 gun shots.

The farm responsible for these shots was carrying out a kangaroo cull. However in order to carry out the cull it looks to me as if they had to trespass on Melbourne Water land to get the kangaroos back on the farm.

Plans of the Victorian Government and Minister for Agriculture Peter Walsh to use the carcasses of Kangaroos shot under an Authority To Control Wildlife (ATCW) permit are very deceptive.

When an ATCW is issued it will state the number of animals allowed to be shot but there is no paperwork to support what the actual number shot was. It could have been more or less than the permit allowed. It is never checked. The number of Kangaroos claimed to be shot under an ATCW annually has been stated by the Victorian Government as 30,000 – 70,000.