Grievance Debate

DINGOES

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:14): I rise today to speak about a very important issue affecting many people in the electorate of Stuart, but also in your own electorate of Giles, Madam Speaker, and a few other places, and that is the very serious issue of dingoes in pastoral country below the dingo fence. So, quite specifically, I am talking about dingoes below the dingo fence, not above it. It is already the case that dingoes are a prescribed pest in South Australia below the dog fence. We have a great problem with their numbers growing all the time in that area and, naturally enough, they are causing extraordinary difficulty in the pastoral industry and particularly the sheep industry.

I have been approached by many pastoralists on this issue. Over the last few years, it has arisen many times in conversation, but specifically over the last six months as a member of parliament. I will give two specific examples because I do not have that much time. Certainly, Mr Brian Treloar of Mooleulooloo station in the north-east claims that he has suffered a loss of 7,000 lambs over two years, an extraordinary loss, due to dingoes, wild dogs. Mr Geoff Mengerson from Depot Springs also gives another equally disturbing example; that is, from his own personal effort, essentially night and day for 13 weeks, he has shot 13 dingoes.

Anyone who knows anything about the pastoral industry or about dingoes knows how hard it is to find them and to get the opportunity to shoot them. Thirteen dingoes in 13 weeks—on the one hand, it attests to his skill and ability, but far more importantly and far more tragically, it attests to the number of dingoes that are in his area. I can certainly attest to the fact that, many times when I have been camping, I have heard dingoes calling in the middle of the night well below the dog fence.

This is a very serious issue for the industry and also communities in the northern areas of Stuart and Giles. There are two main reasons why this problem exists. One is because of non-pastoral use of pastoral leases in the pastoral zone. I am not denigrating those non-pastoral uses. There are many very good other uses of the land such as putting it aside for mining or using it for water, conservation, cultural pursuits, educational pursuits or recreational pursuits, but the problem is, if you are not working in the sheep industry, you have very little interest in keeping dingo numbers down and then that is of great detriment to your neighbours who are in this industry and who are working hard to control the problem. They may well be working on their own station, but if the neighbouring stations are not doing the same thing, it does not really help

The other thing that is a major contributor to this problem is the fact that dingoes are now breeding up below the fence. The fence is in reasonably good condition. The government puts money towards the maintenance of that fence. It is not perfect, but it is reasonably good. However, it is a two-way barrier. The dingoes breeding up below the fence are increasing their numbers all the time. It is not an issue of dingoes coming in from the north really.

Last year in South Australia, 200 dogs were known to be shot, trapped or baited. Last year in Victoria, 1,200 dogs and, in Queensland, approximately 800 per shire. We are surrounded by this problem and it is growing. We are very lucky to be in a better position in South Australia at the moment than our neighbouring states. We do not want to get to the situation that Queensland is in at the moment where their sheep industry in the pastoral zone has just about been eradicated. They nearly do not have a sheep industry any longer because of dingoes.

We cannot afford to get to that situation in South Australia. The key issue is the fact that, aside from the dog fence, the South Australian government puts no money at all into dingo eradication below the fence. There are people working very hard and doing a good job but they are completely under resourced. The money that goes into that comes from the sheep industry fund and the natural resource management boards. There is no other funding going into this. They have to apply for their money year by year for these programs. This is a program that everyone would understand would take years to achieve results, yet they have to look for new money every single year. I urge the government to take this issue very seriously and consider funding dingo eradication below the dog fence.