Tuesday, 6 February 2024

Koala management

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (18:58): (666) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Environment, and the action I seek is for him to investigate koala deaths at blue gum plantations across Victoria. I said earlier today that it is clear this government hates wildlife. They hate ducks – that was clear by their decision last week – and they also hate koalas. In 2017 they estimated that there were between 200,000 and 400,000 koalas living in the south-west region of this state, and since then they have done basically nothing to protect them. Blue gum is a natural food source for koalas, and plantations provide a guaranteed supply as well as adequate shade and shelter, something that they are seeing far less of in their natural environments. As the health of Victorian forests struggles, koalas are continuing to move into and depend on these plantations for survival – that is, until they are commercially logged and turned into woodchip.

Despite being well aware of koala numbers inside plantations, there is currently no requirement for harvesters to relocate these koalas before destroying their habitat, and those that listen to wildlife carers and request translocations are being knocked back by the department responsible. Despite implementation of Victoria’s koala management strategy in 2022, it is unclear what monitoring, if any, this government has over timber logging operations. Rescuers have documented countless deaths over the last two decades, and they only know about them because they volunteer their time onsite night and day to monitor the welfare of koalas and other native animals. It is not uncommon for them to witness trees falling with koalas still attached. Their desperate efforts to rescue them at this stage are more than often far too late.

Most plantations sit within farmland that has limited surrounding habitat. Koalas have no choice but to cross major roads when the felling begins. Late last year wildlife rescuers desperately campaigned for a two-week speed reduction on major roads adjacent to a plantation in Gordon as the harvest commenced. Their action sought to safeguard koalas as they began to cross the Western Freeway. But ongoing efforts to secure reduced speed limits near Gordon’s plantation have encountered roadblocks for over two years now, and this last-ditch plea was no different. Since then, two koalas have lost their lives on this very stretch of busy highway. Six have been killed attempting to cross it in the last 12 months. In fact rescuers have indicated that a least 80 per cent of their call-outs for koalas in the Ballarat region are due to car strike.

Koalas are endangered in New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT. There is only one species in the entire world, and I urge the minister to investigate this issue before they become endangered here as well.