Wednesday, 19 February 2025

Wild dog control

Emma KEALY (Lowan) (19:04): (1013) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Environment, and the action I seek is for the minister to undertake and publish a full audit of dingo licensees in Victoria, including and in addition to those that hold dingoes in relation to cultural heritage purposes. Included in that audit I ask that there is full disclosure regarding the number of licensees and dingo holders for cultural purposes in my electorate of Lowan but also across the state; the postcode of these licensees and other dingo holders; the number of dingoes held at each site; the full results of inspections by the conservation regulator, which is mandatory as part of the licensing requirements; the number of dingoes that have been released to the wild, including the location that those dingoes were released; the number of dingoes that have been chipped at each site; and the number of dingoes of whereabouts currently unknown.

Wild dogs or dingoes are something that is of enormous sensitivity to my electorate of Lowan, and I note that the member for Mildura is also in the chamber – we are both members of regions that are impacted by the area that formerly was able to be managed as part of the wild dog management zone. It is important to note at the outset that this zone was not a ‘kill all wild dogs within this zone’; it was simply a way to manage any wild dogs that were heading out of the national park area towards livestock areas, towards built-up areas, and was a perimeter control situation where trappers who were very experienced in tracking these wild dogs, or dingoes as they now classified, would help to protect sheep and lambs. That is now not undertaken; in fact it is banned.

We have had nearly 600 sheep and lambs mauled in north-west Victoria since the unprotection order was removed. In the past four weeks I have had one landholder by the name of Alan Bennett who has lost 15 sheep and lambs. There is still no fencing, and during the fires in Little Desert the locals were absolutely shocked to find that only a week earlier dingoes had been seen in the Little Desert National Park.

There are concerns there is a breeding program and dingoes are being released. Given that we have got huge numbers of stock being mauled in my electorate, it is devastating to locals to think that the government is supporting these activities. They want transparency. Hindmarsh Shire Council has no knowledge of these licensees to breed dingoes in the area. I ask the government to undertake these orders and make the results public for the certainty of my community.