Thursday, 12 September 2024

Animal welfare

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (18:51): (1159) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Environment, and the action I seek is urgent action on the disastrous state of wildlife care on Phillip Island. Phillip Island has proven to be a haven for critically endangered species, with the island being crucial to numerous species’ survival. The eastern barred bandicoot was declared extinct in the wild in 2013, but after 67 eastern barred bandicoots were placed on Phillip Island in 2017 as part of a population recovery program, population numbers have boomed and they are no longer declared extinct. But instead of building upon this success and safeguarding the natural preserves of Phillip Island to protect threatened species, the government has decided to fund the development of a new tourist attraction, locking up even more wildlife in cages.

The Minister for Environment recently spent over $100,000 on the business Reptile Encounters – which does reptile children’s parties, using them as props and playthings – to put together a site plan for a zoo. This is just the beginning. Let me remind you that this government spends absolutely no dollars on local wildlife rescue efforts that it relies on, yet it happily blows away over $100,000 for just a plan for an interactive reptile zoo so our wildlife can be poked and prodded by members of the public who know nothing about them. What the government should be doing is using that money to reopen a shelter for wildlife on Phillip Island, which is so sorely needed.

The local volunteer wildlife shelter had to close in 2019 due to immense overcapacity and absolutely no funding or support from this government. The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action has also senselessly forced the killings of Cape Barren geese, swamp wallabies, brushtail possums and ringtail possums on Phillip Island, stopping Phillip Island Nature Parks from being able to rehabilitate them and forcing the euthanasia of healthy and orphaned animals. While Phillip Island Nature Parks have a dedicated wildlife hospital, in practice it is only a seabird hospital. Multiple accounts say upon visiting there have been only five to seven animals in care, which is totally inadequate given the hundreds of animals on the island in need of care.

During summer, between the roundabout at Cape Woolamai and the first roundabout in Cowes, only a 10-minute drive, a local counted 52 dead animals. There are now only three koalas left on the island. In what should and can be a wildlife haven on Phillip Island, due to mismanagement by the department, hundreds of animals are dying, species are becoming threatened and locals have nowhere to turn to help wildlife. I ask the minister to urgently intervene in this wildlife crisis on Phillip Island and re-establish wildlife shelters.