Thursday, 30 November 2023

Northern Victoria Region

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (12:41): (609) My constituency question is for the Minister for Environment. Earlier this year I was lucky to meet one of the many baby possums being cared for at Waratah Wildlife Shelter in my electorate. One of them had been poisoned by a cruel blood-thinning poison after drinking her deceased mum’s milk. After months of rehabilitation she was finally released last week back into the wild. Indiscriminate poisoning of native species is common in Northern Victoria. These specific toxins, known as second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, or SGARs, have already been regulated or banned in many countries, but here you can buy them at the supermarket or hardware store no questions asked. I had the honour of naming this possum, so I named her after animal activist icon Jennifer Coolidge. I am pretty sure if Jennifer the possum could speak, she would say, ‘These SGARs are trying to kill me.’ Will the minister regulate the sale of SGARs to move them over the counter alongside other poisons, drugs and controlled substances to help stop the secondary poisoning of countless animals across my electorate?