Tuesday, 13 August 2024

Wildlife crime

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (18:35): (1039) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Environment, and the action I seek is for the government to fund a community-based wildlife crime prevention program modelled off the longstanding Neighbourhood Watch program in Victoria. It is no secret that this government does not value Victorian wildlife. They allow a shameful bounty to kill dingoes, a keystone species ingrained in cultural history; they order the slaughter of kangaroos in staggering numbers under government-funded programs; and they shamefully gave the green light to continue their annual slaughter of our native waterbirds. And as recent data reported, up to 10 million native animals die due to road strike on our roads every year, but this government is doing absolutely nothing to address it.

While I am supportive of the new Crime Stoppers Victoria wildlife crime reporting campaign, more needs to be done to encourage the value and importance of recognising wildlife as victims of crime. Fifty-four of Victoria’s 79 local government areas currently have Neighbourhood Watch groups operating within them. This community-based crime prevention program works to reduce the incidence of preventable crime and provides a safer community for all Victorians. In taking modelling and structure from this program and introducing a community-based participation component to solving wildlife crime, with additional financial reward for information leading to convictions, we can begin to put the importance of protecting our wildlife back on the agenda.

Year after year duck rescuers report shooter noncompliance to the Game Management Authority. We hear evidence of burial pits where bag limits are exceeded, the attempt to hide carcasses of endangered or protected species, wounded birds being left for dead and non-game species being caught up in the carnage. Yet the consequences of these acts are rarely, if ever, treated like the wildlife crimes that they are. In 2018 a farm worker poisoned 406 native birds, including 136 native wedge-tailed eagles, in one of the most horrific mass killings of wildlife our state has ever seen. The clearing of a Cape Bridgewater property in 2020 caused unimaginable suffering to many koalas, and ultimately the death of 81 whose homes were destroyed.

These cases undoubtedly had preventable aspects in which community and accountability should have played a major role. The fact that only one person has been jailed for breaches of the Wildlife Act 1975 for killing wildlife in 45 years speaks volumes for the weakness of the act and community awareness around wildlife crime. Protecting native wildlife is everyone’s responsibility, and the community plays a vital role in solving wildlife crime. I hope that the minister will take seriously the proposal to implement a community-based wildlife crime prevention program, which will undoubtedly encourage those to come forward and be aware of this serious form of crime.