Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this afternoon in the adjournment debate to talk about the disgraceful comments made about the late Steve Irwin by an animal rights activist organisation based in the United States. I have spoken out about this group before, but it saddens me that this group is using the death of a wonderful Australian as a catalyst for making such appalling statements about his tragic and untimely death.

The organisation I refer to is known as the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals or PETA. Isn’t it interesting how they want to treat animals ethically but cannot even think for a minute whether or not their outlandish comments are ethical towards their fellow human beings? The only thing these unnecessary comments do is upset all Australians and, I would say, deeply sadden Steve Irwin’s widow, Terri, and his two young children, Bindi and Bob. I would like to offer my condolences to the Irwin family.

I would rather not repeat the thoughtless comments of PETA, but I feel exactly what was said needs to be documented in our parliament. PETA said:

He made his career out of antagonising frightened wild animals. That’s a very dangerous message to send to children. It comes as no shock at all that Steve Irwin should die provoking a dangerous animal.

They went further to say ‘He looks like a cheap reality TV star.’

This is not the first time PETA have tried to cause heartache to Australia. The organisation made accusations on numerous occasions in 2004 and 2005, and launched scathing campaigns against the Australian wool industry. The group went on an all-out campaign to destroy Australia’s wool industry by claiming Australian farmers mistreat sheep with the practice of mulesing, an animal husbandry practice to protect sheep from becoming fly-blown around the breach. If a sheep does become fly-blown, its blood will be poisoned and the animal weakened, thus becoming susceptible to attacks from birds of prey while they are still alive. Surely this predicament would be far worse for the sheep than the act of mulesing, which will prevent that blowfly strike around the breach.

This time PETA is attacking the much loved Australian conservationist Steve Irwin. Sadly I never had the pleasure of meeting Steve, but I am sure he would have captured my mind as he did those of thousands of people both here and around the world. His work with Australia’s wildlife was not about provoking animals but based on his passion and love for them. He wanted to share this with everyone and through his television shows and the Australia Zoo he was able to show the world how unique, special and important wildlife is.

He was a wildlife and environmental conservationist. I believe that Steve Irwin would never have deliberately aggravated animals. In fact, Mr Irwin set up many facets of wildlife care, from regularly conducting wildlife research in order to better understand animals and how they live to establishing his Wildlife Warriors charity to raise much needed funds for the conservation and rehabilitation of wildlife and their habitat. There was also the Australian Wildlife Hospital, which was opened in March 2004. It is my understanding that the plan for this marvellous animal hospital was for it to be extended to become the largest facility in the world caring for sick and injured wildlife. Unfortunately, Steve will not see this come to fruition, but I am certain his dream will be fulfilled and will be a lasting legacy to his true leadership in wildlife conservation.

In closing, Steve Irwin was many things: a role model for young children, an ambassador for tourism, a carer of wildlife, an entertainer and, most importantly, a father, a husband and a son. However, what Steve Irwin was not is ‘a cheap reality star’ who ‘antagonised animals’ as PETA would claim. He most certainly did not deserve to die. I call on PETA to apologise immediately to the Irwin family and Australia for such heartless comments.