Wednesday, 28 May 2025

Mildura electorate

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (14:46): (1158) My constituency question today is for the Minister for Environment and comes from Hamish, who is a sheep grazier with a thousand acres south of Underbool. He says, ‘I just love my sheep.’ Every day he is having to deal with the trauma of wild dog attacks. Hamish is also suffering extreme mental health issues due to having to see his sheep with their intestines out, mauled and dying daily. He has tried to raise it with the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and has spoken to other farmers, but no solution is helping, such as donkeys, llamas, fencing et cetera. He is also a shearer, and while shearing recently found that about one in every three lambs had a dog bite and needed to be put down on neighbouring properties also. Hamish asks: how will the minister commit to helping farmers in the north-west with the wild dogs who are slaughtering his sheep daily, which may also help with the mental stress adding to farmers already doing it tough in the Mallee?