Wednesday, 25 May 2022

Wild horse control

Mr TILLEY (Benambra) (09:48): Parks Victoria will use snipers under the cover of dark, thermal imaging and sound moderators to shoot brumbies en masse near Falls Creek. It is a fanatical and ideologically driven crusade that has been years in the making, where all other options are all but ignored. The shooters will carry two rifles. A headshot is preferred, with the objective of shooting whole mobs rather than picking off individuals. If you shoot a mare with a foal, the contract demands you track the foal down and shoot it through the head. Shooters are warned about leaving dead horses near roadways or walking tracks. You do not want the public to be seeing what is actually going on in our Crown reserve.

It has been argued that 60 horses are environmental terrorists, while this government ignores the millions of deer, pigs, cats and dogs destroying our Crown reserve. But you will not release last year’s survey of horses because there are bugger-all horses up there. A quarter of a million signatures opposed to all of this are on a petition with the minister, and an independent poll had 91 per cent of people saying no to shooting. Now, what did your Animal Justice Party patsy over in the other place do when he signed up to the dirty little deal he has made? What have you done to keep his mouth shut? There are options—traditional methods of roping, running, mustering and rehoming—but they are all deemed inhumane, shooting not so much.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member’s time has expired. Can I remind members about the use of unparliamentary language.