Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Feral animals and invasive species are a menace to Australia's biodiversity and agricultural production. They are costing us $1 billion per year in lost agricultural production, and this is an issue where we're simply not doing enough at state and federal government level. We need more boots and fewer suits. That's more boots on the ground doing active environmental management and pest-animal control, and fewer suits in the cities, making excuses.

Just this week, I was contacted by a fifth-generation farmer from the area of Benambra in my electorate, a fellow by the name of Stuart. He sent me photos of the wild-dog carnage on his property from just one night. It's confronting—but it is the reality of a lack of wild dog control measures—to see the impact on his sheep flock. People who may not be familiar with farming and don't like the idea of wild dogs being shot or wild dogs being trapped or the use of aerial baits should go out and join my constituent Stuart when he walks out into the paddock in the morning and deals with the stock losses.

Stuart told me the state government rolled back the highly successful wild dog aerial baiting program in the last fortnight, and he says now is the perfect time to bait, as all the young dogs are out on their own and they're the ones doing the damage. Given all the regular issues that we deal with in this industry, we certainly can't afford the time and the cost of this dog issue getting out of hand again.

The social and economic cost of wild dogs to our sheep flock is enormous—and to our farmers themselves. In terms of mental health and stress, just imagine working all day to care for your stock, going home at night and grabbing a bite to eat and then grabbing your rifle and your thermal scope and heading out again to try and control wild dogs. That is the lived reality for farmers in my electorate.

The last time the dogs were this bad was around 2010 when, from a flock of, say, 1,000 sheep, you could lose 20 to 30 ewes in one night. That was at a time when sheep were valuable—but nothing like the prices they're getting today. In today's market, a lamb can be worth up to $300, and ewes can be around $250 to $350 per head. So, in a bad night, if it gets back to the way it was in 2010, you could see a loss of $7,500—or even up to $15,000 if the ewes are pregnant—just in one night. This is the lived reality of farmers in my electorate right now, when it comes to controlling the wild dog problem.

I acknowledge this is primarily a matter for the state government, but the federal government does have a role to play here in the way we provide funding for natural resource management and the control of invasive and feral species. Wild dogs are an enormous social and economic cost to our community, and both levels of government need to be working together to use every available lever to control the problem before it gets completely out of hand once again.

See this speech in context