The State Environment Minister has been asked to rule out the abolition, or reduction, of Victoria’s wild dog program measures on public land in the state’s east.

Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull, said concerns had been heightened after:

• A Labor Government decision last week to end wild dog controls on public land in Victoria’s northeast, where it stated the dingo population was under threat of extinction.
• Labor bringing a dingo into Parliament to allow its MP’s to have a photo taken with it.
• A recently retired dogger in the Buchan area was not replaced.

Mr Bull said the move in the northwest has drawn the ire of farming and Landcare spokespersons who said dog numbers will be out of control within five years and labelled it an extremist action to accommodate the Greens with no regard for farmers’ economic viability.

“There are alarm bells going off in the local farming fraternity locally and they know what any reduction in controls would mean on the ground. It won’t have any bearing on the wet behind the ears bureaucracy in Melbourne, but will force some of our food producing farmers off the land in the worst areas.

“In addition, we also have a push for all wild dogs with any level of dingo DNA to be recognised as dingoes, and therefore afforded greater levels of protections.

“Reducing the program in any way would be a massive kick in the guts for our farmers and have a devastating impact.

“These are decisions being made by a Minister that has next to no knowledge of the impact of wild dogs, I doubt has ever spoken to an East Gippsland farmer on the receiving end of these attacks, and is taking advice from a left-wing bureaucracy that is completely out of touch with the realities of rural life,” Mr Bull said.

“Every avenue to get rid of dogs that kill stock needs to be maintained, not increase protections and only allow action when they have entered private land – it is too late by then.

“Often, the only possible place to get these dogs is on the public land tracks adjacent to private property – both doggers and farmers will tell you that. Wild dog fencing helps, but with falling trees, sambar deer, wombats and kangaroos continually causing damage, it cannot be relied upon, hence all control measures need to be kept in place.”

Mr Bull said it was time to put farmers first and calls on the government to not adopt idealistic approaches that will impact on the livelihoods of farming families.

“That is why I have asked the Minister to confirm there will be no major changes, or reductions, to the wild dog program in East Gippsland, as that would have significant detrimental outcomes for us as a food producing region,” he said.

Caption: Nationals State MP, Tim Bull, is calling on the Minister for Environment to rule out any changes to the current wild dog program in East Gippsland.

Monday, 18 March 2024