Derryn Hinch (Victoria, Derryn Hinch's Justice Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate:

(a) notes that:

  (i) Pure Compound Sodium Fluoroacetate ('1080') poison is classified by the World Health Organization as a Class l(a) poison – their highest rating for toxicity,

  (ii) in Australia, 1080 is listed as a schedule 7 poison, surpassed only by addictive, illicit and other prohibited substances, and is considered a chemical of security concern by the Australian Government

  (iii) despite most other countries adopting alternative, more humane, pest-management strategies, Australia and New Zealand account for the vast majority of 1080 use worldwide,

  (iv) 1080 poison is a cruel alternative to other known methods of pest control, including poisons with effective antidotes, and

  (v) 1080 poison is aerially distributed across Australia, including often untracked use throughout national parks, leaving other species and domesticated animals susceptible to agonising deaths that can last as long as five days; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to regulate for the orderly phase-out of 1080 poison.

I want to start today with a story that will make me sound naive. Years and years ago—decades ago—I had a mate across the Ditch, in New Zealand, who was a helicopter pilot. He did most of his work in the South Island. When I asked him what he actually did, he said he dropped tonnes of carrots for the deer to eat. Being an animal lover and a campaigner against animal suffering and cruelty for more than 40 years, I thought, 'Gee, that's great.' Then he explained that this was not a humanitarian aerial food drop for Bambi; the carrots were laced with the deadly poison 1080. I'd never heard of it. I have since learned that one teaspoon of 1080 can kill 100 people.

All these years later 1080 is still being used in New Zealand and here in Australia, including in our national parks like Kosciuszko National Park, just around the corner. In fact I have been told the world's largest manufacturer of 1080, the Tull company in Alabama, sells at least 80 per cent of its 1080 to Australia and New Zealand. Some is also sold, I believe, to Japan and Israel.

I checked with New Zealand yesterday and the poisoned carrot drops from helicopters and planes are still going on over there, but the main target now is not deer but possums. The obvious problem is that aerial drops of this deadly poison are so indiscriminate. So many other species of non-feral critters die as well, as the targets, in agonising deaths that can take up to four or five excruciating days. I have seen evidence of farmers' dogs dying from 1080 poisoning. One farmer, who has been corresponding with my office, tells me he's lost 16 dogs to 1080—sixteen! Additionally, dosage of 1080 is almost impossible to control. Even if an animal consumes a sub-lethal dose, it'll still be left permanently disabled and in terrible pain.

A 2005 peer-reviewed study in New Zealand found that this practice is so indiscriminate, so untargeted, that even reducing the dosage of 1080 in these poisoned carrots could not save native wildlife. Crucial bird species over there, like the tomtit, would have their populations smashed by factors of up to 50 per cent. In recent months we have seen news reports of several Kiwi families who have suffered near-fatal illnesses because they have eaten 1080-infested wild pig.

I recently read an article by an American poisons expert, Joanna Grossman, PhD. She was attacking the USDA—the United States Department of Agriculture—over the use of deadly poisons. She said:

… there's something particularly shocking about our government stockpiling and deploying some of the deadliest poisons in the world in a scorched earth attempt to deal with wildlife.

The fact that Australia is following this practice, especially while there are other known methods of pest control available, including other poisons with known antidotes, defies logic.

Speaking of wildlife, there's an agency in the United States called Wildlife Services. It is a program within the US Department of Agriculture that is cynically known as the 'killing agency'. They are the federal government's exterminator. They kill between 3 million and 5 million animals each year using some of the most inhumane methods imaginable. We are talking about chemical poisons; cruel, body-gripping traps that mangle target and non-target animals; aerial gunning operations gone bad that have even led to pilot deaths; and even sometimes using vehicles to run over and hit animals in a crude attempt to knock off unwanted pests.

As Ms Grossman pointed out, all of these methods are dangerous and suspect, but, as she said, there is something particularly shocking about a government stockpiling and deploying some of the deadliest poisons in the world in a scorched-earth attempt to deal with wildlife.

This is less about wildlife management, which presumably would at least involve a first attempt to effectively manage any problematic wildlife through non-lethal means rather than 'kill first, ask questions later' philosophy that that rids the ecosystems of native carnivores and countless other animals that add to the rich biological diversity of outdoor spaces. Simply put: why would a government need to use something like 1080 to mitigate wildlife damage? Can an agency supposedly committed to the coexistence of people and wildlife really not do better with all the funds and expertise at its disposal?

In 2005 a CIA report on weapons of mass destruction revealed that 1080 was found in Saddam Hussein's chemical stockpile. In other words, the US federal government thinks that the tool of a mass murderer is apparently suitable to spread on public lands, and they are doing it using taxpayers' dollars. Joanna Grossman points out that President Richard Nixon signed an executive order in 1972 that prohibited the use of poisons like 1080 and sodium cyanide on public lands—and with good bloody reason. That executive action was unfortunately reversed, but the Nixon administration had the right idea. These deadly poisons have no place in and around the wild open spaces and trails that people use for hiking and recreation. No-one should ever have to fear losing their beloved dog because they stumbled upon some horrific killing device that was secretly placed there by government agencies. And that is happening here in national parks in Australia.

The unfortunate reality is that, if an odourless and colourless poison such as 1080 came into the wrong hands, it could be used to poison a public water supply. Before you scoff at that one, go back a few weeks to a story out of Alice Springs which had police warning Territorian pet owners to look out for symptoms of poisoning after a large amount of 1080 was stolen from a pastoralist's property near Alice Springs. Thieves broke into a locked shed and a locked box and stole the schedule 7 poison, which is also a listed as a chemical of security concern by our government. Alice Springs Superintendent Pauline Vickery said that police held concerns for people and animals potentially exposed to the chemical. She said: 'It is concerning that this chemical is out in the public domain. We urge people not to handle it as we believe it has toxic ramifications.' Police urged pet owners to secure their animals so they couldn't get access to deadly bait that may have been placed in a public space.

This is the very poison being seeded, I believe recklessly, in our national parks. One anti-1080 campaigner asked the authorities for details of any register, especially in Victoria and New South Wales, of where 1080 was being laid, especially in national parks where people go hiking in the bush with their kids. Even though dogs are banned, how do you stop a pet dog from straying there and taking a bait? My informant was told there is no such register. He was told that if he wanted to find out such information he would have to contact every single agency, every single branch, every single distributor in the country.

I know my detractors will say that this is a perfectly regulated practice tightly controlled by state licensing schemes and zoning requirements. Let's take a look at that one. Last year, as part of a thing called Project Eden, the Shire of Shark Bay in WA introduced its baiting program along the Peron Peninsula. Locals were told, don't worry, baits will be tightly restricted to 100 metres away from roads and 20 metres from private property boundaries. Twenty metres!

Good luck stopping a pet dog from making it 20 metres beyond your fence line. To me, the thought of a child making this simple mistake is almost too horrible to consider. To make matters worse, the local community was told that the coastal strip, which had previously been bombed by 1080, was still an exclusion zone. If baits can't be removed or even traced after their deployment, then how is this a targeted or safe practice?

I want to conclude by going back to where I started: a novice, a rube—me—believing all those years ago that carrots were being dropped by helicopter to feed Bambi. In real life, one of the most dangerous poisons in the world, a concentrated compound poison which would take only a teaspoon to kill 100 people, is still being used, I believe recklessly, in Australia and New Zealand. I fervently believe that 1080 should be, and must be, phased out in the very near future.