Friday, 19 August 2022

Motions

Wild horse control

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (10:09): I move:

That this house:

(1) notes that this year the Andrews government intends to:

(a) via ground and aerial shooting, kill 500 brumbies in the Victorian Alpine National Park, including 65 Bogong High Plains brumbies linked by bloodline to army remounts;

(b) eradicate 400 brumbies living in the Barmah National Park;

(2) regrets the failure of Parks Victoria to:

(a) publish updated population counts in accordance with its own wild horse management plans;

(b) pursue effectively trapping and rehoming of brumbies in accordance with the published management plans;

(3) believes that the necessity to include ground and aerial shooting in rough and remote wooded terrain cannot, given the terrain involved and the shooting of moving targets from moving platforms, avoid significant cruelty to animals injured but not killed outright;

(4) further notes the environmental and public health hazard presented by the current shooting operation tender for the Barmah and Alpine national parks, which closed on 8 June 2022, states that carcasses will not be buried or removed but instead hidden from view, broken down and left to decompose in the national parks;

(5) requires the minister for energy, environment and climate change to:

(a) publicly announce the current brumby population numbers in the Barmah and Alpine national parks;

(b) reverse the current suspension of trapping and rehoming operations, including the approval of volunteer rehoming organisations; and

(c) cancel any current or planned brumby-shooting operations, particularly those which would leave carcases to decompose on public land.

I rise today to speak on motion 796 on the notice paper in my name, which calls for an immediate cessation to Parks Victoria’s present and future brumby-shooting operations. It is a cause I have supported for years now, and the case only gets stronger as we learn more about the slaughter that is currently being conducted in state-controlled parks and forests by this government.

While I am pleased that the coalition have committed to stopping the shooting when we defeat Daniel Andrews in November, the truth is it needs to stop now. That is why I was proud a few weeks ago to present to Parliament the petition, signed by so many people, and it is why I put down this motion for an immediate cancellation of the slaughter. What we have heard in recent weeks of the operation underway to eradicate brumbies is truly sickening. It is barbaric. Earlier this year at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) hearings Parks CEO Matthew Jackson confirmed to me that complete eradication by shooting was planned for the Barmah brumbies and that hundreds would be destroyed in the Alpine National Park too.

But what has really changed in the last month is the emergence of the detail of what this Labor government is not just allowing to happen but positively driving forward. The tender document issued by Parks Victoria is absolutely horrifying. It talks about military-grade secrecy, covert night-time exercises, primary targets, operational security and immediate termination of non-compliant contractors. It says drones may be used for surveillance and tracking of brumbies. It says working dogs may be used for the purpose of locating horses, especially in the very likely event of wounding. Worst of all, the plan includes sawing through carcasses with chainsaws and then camouflaging them so they are ‘removed from view’. So not only will the horses be shot and shot badly—I have got evidence now they are being shot not to kill but to wound—but hundreds of carcasses will be hacked up and left to rot. It is horrific and it is cruel, and this says nothing of the environmental health consequences of rotting carcasses infecting watercourses or the fact that they will provide fodder for wild dog, cat and fox populations. None of this is scaremongering. It is there in black and white in the tender document.

It is no wonder it needs secrecy, this government. Ground and aerial shooting is unavoidably brutal. In rough and remote wooded terrain it is just not possible to do it humanely. Shooting from helicopters is worst of all. There is no way that targeting herds of moving animals from a moving platform can avoid significant and lasting cruelty to the horses injured but not killed outright. I have extensive visual evidence of the cruel approach being employed by this government. This really is the essence of the problem. It is where words meet reality. If you sit around a table and discuss a policy, you can make anything sound reasonable. If you design a plan which talks about management, you hide the bloody reality, probably even from yourself. That is what Parks have been doing. In fact their self-delusion has gone a step further. They claim that putting their management plan into practice will follow at all times approved standard operating procedures, but again that is words, it is not the reality. However much they want it to be and however much they spin it, it just is not and it cannot be.

The national regulator states ground shooting is not recommended in rough country, as wounded animals cannot be effectively pursued and would suffer unnecessarily, and that is exactly what is happening. PestSmart has significant experience in the reality of operations like this. They are managed through the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions and receive funding from the Australian government. It is not hard to see why they have reached their conclusions. In the remote, inaccessible, densely wooded, uneven terrain involved, wounded horses cannot be easily found and put out of their misery, especially when the tender document makes clear these operations will be taking place at night, in the dark. Those maimed linger for days, and worse still, when lactating mares are killed their foals face an even longer death from starvation or attack by feral dogs, cats and foxes. I have evidence of mares aborting after being shot and the foal being left to be eaten by wild animals. For Parks Victoria to state that they will comply with all standard operating procedures is simply fantasy. There is no way their operation, outlined in detail in the tender document issued, can possibly avoid incidents of gross cruelty. And it would hardly be the first time; just last year Parks Victoria commenced trapping in the Barmah during foaling season, in complete contradiction of these same standard operating procedures.

I want to touch on the last two elements of the motion. The first part is on rehoming. The much-mentioned management plans are careful to imply that shooting is a last resort and that efforts will be directed instead to rehoming. This sounds reasonable of course, yet those involved with rehoming in the Barmah and the Alpine regions have become extremely cynical about Parks Victoria’s commitment. I have previously asked for, but not received, cost estimates per horse for their removal by both rehoming and shooting. Estimated costs must exist, for Parks Victoria has produced targets for removal for these programs and indicative budgets. It would certainly go some way to reducing public cynicism if Parks could dispel the feeling they are inclined to prefer shooting because it is cheaper and easier.

This lack of faith in Parks’ sincerity is not just an unevidenced conspiracy, it is borne out by the low numbers of brumbies rehomed and Parks’ apparent recent abandonment of the policy. In the PAEC hearing I referenced previously, Parks CEO Matt Jackson said:

… we have gone through and rehomed 10 horses in the Barmah National Park, consistent with ethics, animal equine vets’ oversight and principles … We did rehome 10 horses, which was a great outcome …

Forgive me. I am sorry I do not share his enthusiasm. Ten horses rehomed is hardly an impressive outcome. To get an idea of the scale, just moments later I asked:

So you are going to shoot 400 horses?

And he replied:

If the numbers are there.

Ten animals rehomed versus the many hundreds, if not thousands, shot in the most barbaric fashion.

I feel particularly bad for those organisations and donors who are doing their very best to save the brumbies by rehoming them. Individual rehomers and groups have been trying to work with Parks in good faith. For example, the Barmah Brumby Preservation Group has fundraised nearly $100 000 for fencing and infrastructure and applied to rehome 100 horses. Yet in this same PAEC hearing Mr Jackson confirmed that trapping has been completely suspended in the Barmah and Alpine national parks on the basis that activists had interfered with certain traps. While there is no doubt this is wrong, I question Parks’ commitment to trapping and rehoming if they are so easily abandoning their effort. Offenders should be found and prosecuted and the traps reopened. Instead the idea is simply abandoned. If there are no horses trapped, none can be rehomed. Perhaps this is why so many applicants for rehoming have been rejected despite their clear ability to take horses. Whatever the case, it is clear that rehoming is not being pursued with the same determination that shooting is, and I cannot express how strongly I condemn this appalling judgement.

Finally, and most straightforwardly, the motion calls for Minister D’Ambrosio to publicly announce the current brumby population numbers in the Barmah and Alpine national parks. This should not be controversial. It should be the first step taken. The management plan makes it clear the rationale behind trapping and culling is to reduce populations in order to prevent their continued increase, yet without the release of these figures, we cannot even see if the primary argument is valid. It appears that the widespread bushfires in the summer of 2020–21 severely reduced the brumby population, yet no numbers have been published subsequent to these events.

The evidence so far at the moment is just incredibly devastating—to see the photos of the animals that have been shot in the neck and the shoulder only to immobilise and then no shots into the head to immediately destroy the animal. It is cruel. They linger, dying over a long period of time. It is so barbaric. I do not see how any government can possibly sanction this form of operation. It is just beyond understanding. In conclusion, I commend this motion to the house and call on all of us to use the opportunity to end this misguided, misdirected, cynical, unevidenced and cruel slaughter of a majestic and historic brumby population.

Mr MEDDICK (Western Victoria) (10:21): It may surprise some people who might be listening today—I know it is not going to surprise Mrs McArthur, but it might surprise some of her fellow members on the bench—that I am actually in support of a motion that the Liberals are putting forward. Having read through the motion, there is nothing in here that I disagree with, but I do want to cover off some topics that I think are worth talking about. My party and I firmly believe in the trapping of every single one, where possible, of the brumbies, wherever they are—in the High Country, in Barmah, in Victoria—and having them rehomed. We understand that this is not a simple process. It is not something that can be done in 5 minutes; it will take time.

I have spoken several times with the Minister for Environment and Climate Action, Lily D’Ambrosio, to say that this needs to be the tactic. It is what has to be done going forward, but not in isolation. Immunocontraceptive measures also need to be employed. We know there are at least two drugs available freely from the United States which are highly successful in this area. But I did not want to leave that to chance either, so in the last budget I asked that the government supply enough money to finish some research projects that are going on at Melbourne University and Monash University on immunocontraception that could be manufactured here in Australia that is not species specific, that could be manipulated, because it is part of an overall solution.

Now, there is no doubt that no matter when these horses were introduced into the state they were exactly that, an introduced species. They are not a native species; they do not actually belong here. But we recognise the emotional attachment that people have because of the time that has passed since they were introduced, what the original horses were actually used for and why they were then let go. We understand that. The thing that upsets me a lot though, and I want to put this on record, is that there have been, from various members of these various groups, some shockingly racist attacks upon the Yorta Yorta people, whose country a majority of these horses reside on. That under no circumstances is acceptable. The Yorta Yorta people have concern for the country that is and always will be theirs. They want to see it restored to its former glory. They want to work in that way. They can have disagreements with the various groups—I understand that—but to resort to racist attacks is just not on. That is not on.

I will support the motion, and I look forward to the government actually working towards the rehoming and trapping of these animals and to also finding a solution for the other introduced species that are causing damage in these areas—the deer, the pigs, the goats—because my party and I do not support under any circumstances the inhumane shooting of any of these animals. Culling by shooting has been shown to never, ever be either a humane solution or an effective solution, and it cannot proceed.

Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (10:25): I rise to speak to Mrs McArthur’s motion today, and I congratulate Mrs McArthur and thank her for bringing this motion to the chamber, because it is a very important issue in my electorate, which incorporates both the Alpine National Park and the Barmah National Park. Certainly the government’s policy of shooting the brumbies has no support that I have come across in my electorate. It is inhumane and it is abhorrent to everybody. Yes, there is support for the management of numbers of brumbies, and we all realise that brumby numbers need to be managed, but this can be done in humane ways through rehoming and through veterinary interventions, and this is what the Liberal Party have committed to doing. Members of this chamber will remember that some time ago I brought a motion to this house on this very issue of the Andrews government shooting brumbies in northern Victoria in the alpine parks. That motion was passed unanimously by this chamber. Not even the government ministers voted against that. Everybody thinks the shooting of these beautiful, majestic and indeed culturally significant animals is inhumane.

I would like to congratulate Bill Tilley, the member for Benambra, who has done an enormous amount of work in fighting the government’s policy of shooting the brumbies and bringing it to the attention of the Victorian community. Bill’s work, together with the motion that I brought through this house, which was passed unanimously, led to the Liberal Party releasing its policy on brumby management. That is, that on day one of a Liberal government—the next government after the election on 26 November, so on 27 November—we would stop all shooting of brumbies in Victoria and we would move to a more humane way of managing the brumby numbers in our national parks.

I heard either Mrs McArthur or Mr Meddick reference the Barmah Brumby Preservation Group and the sanctuary that they have started there. They have room for 100 horses to be rehomed, yet when the shooting happened earlier this year in the Barmah National Park, Parks Victoria gave five brumbies to the sanctuary and sent five for rehoming in other areas. The rest were just shot. They were left in the forest for people who were using the forest to come across and to be distraught about when they came across those brumbies. This is inhumane. They went on to shoot dozens of brumbies and only rehomed 10. That is not in the spirit of the agreement they struck with the locals in the Barmah district. I know that there have been at least two rehoming authorities that have applied for 30 brumbies each and have been told that, no, they cannot have any brumbies for rehoming and that the government is just going on to shoot these animals.

We know that in the past week or so there has been a herd of brumbies found up around Limestone Road and these brumbies were shot by aerial shooting from a helicopter. A friend of mine actually went up there—he is also a member of the Brumby Action Group—and he photographed those brumbies. With instructions from vets, he was able to determine by the trajectory rods that he inserted into the wounds that those horses were shot from the air. There was a grey lactating mare that had aborted. She also had a foal at foot. The grey mare was only shot in the gut. She was not shot in the head or chest in accordance with the standard operating practices. Her dependent foal, the photographer believes, was shot in the chest much later, when a ground crew finally came by and shot her in the chest. She would have been by her mother’s side for possibly days while her mother lay there dying, bleeding out. That would have been an horrendous death. But this was not just one horse. There were photos of a stallion under trees, and a dark mare. The dark filly was shot twice in the neck. The stallion was shot in the back and behind the shoulder on an upward trajectory. The only true chest shot was a little chestnut foal. The grey mare he was next to had only one wound from about halfway down her nearside flank.

In other words, the standard operating procedures had not been complied with. These horses had not been humanely shot. The observations were, as I said, that these horses were shot from a helicopter and that they suffered an inhumane and long death, as often happens when you shoot horses in remote areas. The little filly, as I said before, stood by her mother’s side for days. Only the filly and the grey aborting mare were covered with branches. A ground crew did come by much later on and they shot that little filly and covered her with branches, but most of these horses would have died a long and slow bleed-out that would have been horrendous.

The wholesale, cruel and inhumane slaughter is unnecessary. There are rehomers willing to take these brumbies, and as I said, there were number of them that had indicated that they want to take these horses. There are better ways to manage our brumby population than to shoot them from helicopters as this government is doing. This wholesale slaughter must stop, and I note that Mr Meddick actually said he supports this motion and supports the Liberal Party’s position on this. Well, the true test of whether Mr Meddick supports that position will be where his preferences go in the election. If his preferences go back to Labor and the Greens before they come to the coalition, then we will know that Mr Meddick does not actually stand for animal justice and he is actually just there to be a vehicle that preferences back to the Labor Party. If Mr Meddick wants to stop this inhumane shooting of horses in Victoria, he will preference the Liberals and the coalition ahead of the Greens and Labor.

Mr HAYES (Southern Metropolitan) (10:33): The Victorian government’s current brumby cull can be summed up in a few words: cruel, ineffective and callous. I do not doubt the fact that the iconic brumby, or wild horse, populations are having a detrimental impact on the survival of our native flora and fauna. We urgently need to act to halt the damage they are causing, but recklessly slaying and injuring them with rifles from helicopters is abhorrent. There are other options, and the government should at the very least explore these avenues before resorting to the easy route. Shooting is not humane; leaving injured and wounded horses to die a slow and painful death is not humane. A socially conscious government should not inflict such suffering on animals. There are other options to explore. Immunocontraceptive vaccines, as mentioned by Mr Meddick, for fertility control, have been used with success in North America and are administered by injection. There is relocation—to simply move the horses from national parks and habitats with sensitive flora and fauna. These are the sort of options we should be striving towards. There is little doubt the iconic brumby is cherished by many in the Australian population, and we could even consider adoption and rehoming them in this way. The aerial cull is lazy, it lacks compassion and I do not support it. Therefore I support the motion.

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (10:35): I am pleased that Mr Hayes and Mr Meddick are supporting the motion. That is fantastic. We will look forward to getting their preferences on this matter in the forthcoming election.

I just want to remind the entire house that this is an incredibly barbaric operation. It is totally unnecessary. We do not need to eradicate a population of animals in this most cruel and unseemly way. It is only creating more problems in a forest, as Mr Hayes said, where animal carcasses are left for wild animals to feed on. That encourages more feral animals like dogs, cats and foxes. These animals were managed very well in the past, and they can be managed very well in the future. I urge everybody in this house to support this motion.

House divided on motion:

Motion agreed to.