Tuesday, 3 October 2023

Dingo protection

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (17:41): (469) My adjournment matter this evening is for the new Minister for Environment in the other place, and the action I seek is for him to reverse the shocking decision to renew the order in council to unprotect native dingoes for a further 12 months.

In 2008 the dingo was listed as a threatened species. However, on 1 October 2010 the order was made under the Wildlife Act 1975 making it legal to hunt, trap and poison this vital keystone species across half of the state. In Victoria it is estimated that 10 million lambs die on farms each year, and as usual the government response is to find a scapegoat – in this case it was the dingo. The sheep industry’s own research states that more than 80 per cent of sheep deaths are due to farm management practices, including breeding from multiple births and repeated exposure to the cold. In the last year as little as 0.0056 per cent of Victoria’s sheep population was reportedly attacked, and I would like it noted that that is the industry’s own data. However, in the same period over 1000 dingoes were killed through trapping and bounty programs. It is unknown how many are killed by 1080 baiting, an indiscriminate poison that causes extreme suffering and is banned in most other countries.

Dingoes are Australia’s only native canid, playing a crucial ecological role as an apex predator and keeping natural systems in balance. They hold a significant place in the spiritual and cultural practices of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, yet for decades dingoes have been persecuted by industries that exploit animals due to their claimed threat to introduced farmed animals and for profit. This month a national dingo declaration was signed by representatives from more than 20 First Nations groups that considered dingoes a cultural icon, stating lethal control should never be an option and that killing them is killing family. This government continues to ignore the facts, the data, the environment, the animals and the voices of First Nations groups on this issue. They make it legal to kill threatened species to keep animal industries of exploitation happy.

As I have raised recently in this place, new research has revealed that most dingoes in Victoria are actually purebred. Comprehensive DNA testing has confirmed what ecologists, First Peoples and animal advocates have been demonstrating for years – that there is no such thing as a wild dog. A 2021 inquiry into ecosystem decline in Victoria recommended greater protection for dingoes, including reviewing the fox and wild dog bounty program, but a response from the government is still long overdue. I hope that the minister will reconsider the decision to put a price tag on the head of one of our most precious threatened and culturally significant native species.