Tuesday, 30 May 2023

 Jeff BOURMAN (Eastern Victoria) (18:29): (255) My question is for the Minister for Environment. A constituent in Mount Eliza contacted me about a deer control program that Parks Victoria is conducting in the Gippsland Lakes national park. My constituent is one of about 50,000 recreational deer hunters in Victoria, and my electorate of Eastern Victoria really is a mecca for deer hunters. My constituent understands the need for sound deer management but is concerned particularly about the impact of this control on a particular species of deer – the hog deer. Hog deer are a very small species of deer, weighing around 50 kilograms, and their impacts, particularly when compared to sambar deer, are benign. Hog deer are also endangered in their native range, and Victoria is home to the only secure wild population remaining in the world.

My constituent wants to know what consideration was given to the hog deer in planning this control program, when the government will publicly release the pre and post control deer population counts and what consultation government agencies had with acknowledged deer experts such as the Australian Deer Association before embarking on this program.