Kangaroo pet food trial
Ms KEALY (Lowan) (09:43): I call on the minister to reverse her decision to halt the kangaroo pet food program in western Victoria. While I agree the program should be halted in areas devastated by bushfire in order to protect our wildlife, we have been fortunate this fire season to have not been heavily impacted by bushfire. Far western Victoria is simply too great a distance from the bushfire-affected areas to provide support for the natural translocation of wildlife, and we are experiencing continued heavy damage, including to property, pasture, fragile ecosystems and native flora and fauna by plague numbers of kangaroos. I ask that the minister immediately reverse the suspension of the kangaroo pet food program in western Victoria, where the bushfires have no impact on kangaroo numbers.