National Parks and Wildlife (Wombat Burrows) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (12:36): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I would like to thank members in the other place who gave detailed consideration to the important animal welfare issues that this bill considers. I would particularly like to thank the Hon. Tammy Franks for the work she did in bringing the original version of the bill to her chamber and then, of course, for the work done by Emily Bourke, amongst, I am sure, other members of the Legislative Council, in amending the bill to the form in which we have received it.

As an iconic species in South Australia, there is value in increasing the protection of wombats and in clarifying for landholders and the community how wombats and their habitat are to be protected. There are two species of wombat found in South Australia. There is the southern hairy-nosed wombat and the common wombat, sometimes called the bare-nosed wombat. Both of these species are considered by the bill that is before us today.

The latter, although known as a common wombat, is in fact recognised as a rare species in South Australia under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972. Importantly, both species are protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act, which means that the current existing framework provides that a person must not, first of all, take, which means to kill, injure or capture, a protected animal without a permit and also must not interfere, harass or molest a protected animal or undertake an activity that is or is likely to be detrimental to the welfare of the protected animal, unless they hold a permit to do so or satisfy exemption criteria.

It is also important to note that there are currently provisions relating to the ill-treatment of animals in the Animal Welfare Act 1985. This bill provides specific regulatory protections to wombats, and it inserts a provision preventing the deliberate disturbance, damage or destruction of burrows.

This bill, I think, was inspired by concerns raised by members of the public about the possibility that, by destroying burrows without taking due care and diligence to ensure that animals are not in those burrows, wombats were being suffocated within their homes and that we needed to make sure that, although that is against the law under the Animal Welfare Act, we are providing the right regime to protect those animals and to guide the way in which they are managed or their environment is managed.

The Department for Environment and Water encourages a 'living with wildlife' approach to how people think about and interact with wildlife. Burrow destruction is rarely effective when undertaken as the only means of managing wombat impacts and therefore the department recommends a range of methods to landholders. Nonlethal methods of management for wombats include electric fencing, fence alterations, wombat gates and marking burrows.

While the department encourages the use of nonlethal methods of wombat management, it may issue a person a Permit to Destroy Wildlife when wombats and, indeed, protected wildlife generally are causing or are likely to cause damage to the environment, crops, stock, property or environmental amenity, including built structures, or are posing a safety risk or hazard to people or industry.

Where destruction is permitted, it must be done in accordance with the relevant code of practice for humane destruction. Destroying burrows with the intent of destroying an animal is not an approved method of destruction and would almost certainly be an offence under the National Parks and Wildlife Act, as well as the Animal Welfare Act.

The legislation before us creates a mechanism to allow the minister to declare an area to be protected from this kind of activity so that the animals are entirely protected and makes sure that the way we interact with these animals is respectful and people can have confidence that cruelty is not occurring.

I would like to thank members for their support in developing the bill in its current format. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (12:41): I rise to make a brief contribution to the bill on behalf of the opposition. In doing so, I want to acknowledge the work of the Hon. Tammy Franks in the other place for her ongoing commitment to protecting our native fauna. Like so many in this place, we are all committed to the prevention of cruelty to animals, whether they be domestic or native animals. This bill, of course, concerns wombats and wombat burrows. As the minister has pointed out, there are two species of wombats found in South Australia: the southern hairy-nosed wombat and the common wombat, both of which are already protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972.

In circumstances where a landowner or manager may have the need to destroy a wombat burrow—and I note that there are many legitimate circumstances where that need might arise, whether it be for safety reasons or for economic reasons—that landowner or manager is already required under the existing legislative provisions to do so in a manner that will not constitute an offence, an offence under either the National Parks and Wildlife Act or the Animal Welfare Act 1985, which prevent the taking or molesting of protected fauna and which prevent the ill-treatment of an animal.

In contrast to these existing legislative protections, this bill seeks to introduce a specific provision into the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 which prohibits the destroying, damaging or disturbing of a wombat burrow and also establishes a permit system for doing so. In that sense it is more of a protection of habitat rather than a protection of a species.

The opposition does have some concerns that to require a landowner to obtain a permit prior to the destruction of a wombat burrow might increase the regulatory burden on land managers and landowners, as well as government agencies, without practically improving the protections that are already in place for wombats under both the National Parks and Wildlife Act and the Animal Welfare Act.

These concerns appear to be somewhat consistent with concerns the government might have had on this issue as well. I note that there were amendments moved in the other place that limit the circumstances in which a land manager will require a permit, including an exemption where the burrow is causing or is likely to cause damage to crops, stock, machinery or infrastructure or may pose a safety risk or hazard to people.

However, this limitation only applies if the burrow is outside a wombat burrow protection zone, and the bill lacks any detail about how a wombat burrow protection zone will be determined, except to say it will be declared by notice in the Gazette. In these circumstances, the opposition is of the view that this bill will increase the regulatory burden on both land managers and government agencies without necessarily achieving any improvements in the existing protection of wombats under the National Parks and Wildlife Act and the Animal Welfare Act.

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (12:45): I rise today in support of the National Parks and Wildlife (Wombat Burrows) Amendment Bill 2022. In today's climate of 24/7 news coverage, regular opinion polls and 10-second sound bites, I think it is a fair cop that parliaments right across the democratic world can sometimes get caught up trying to get that next vote, but it is imperative that, as representatives, we represent not just those who are the loudest but also those who cannot speak at all. Today, we get to do that in this place and provide a voice to our fluffy, four-legged friends who contribute so much to our communities and our economy without saying anything at all.

This bill is designed to give additional protections to what I would consider one of our cutest four-legged friends—wombats. I would like to start by thanking the Hon. Tammy Franks MLC, who is in the gallery today, for introducing this bill to the other place, and I extend my appreciation to her staff, as well as to community organisations, particularly the Wombat Awareness Organisation, which worked incredibly hard on the bill we find before us today.

As the member for Bragg pointed out, South Australia is home to two species of wombat: the southern hairy-nosed wombat and the common or bare-nosed wombat. Beloved by our state, the hairy-nosed wombat was made South Australia's faunal emblem in 1970. All muscle, these powerful and skilled diggers can grow to be one metre long and weigh as much as 32 kilos—if they were a dog, I reckon with a solid build like that they would be a staffy—and young hairy-nosed wombats will live in their mother's burrow for almost three years.

Its bare-nosed cousin, the common wombat—a term I feel does not give them the credit they deserve; it almost feels as if it is the wombat version of calling someone basic, but I digress—is recognised as a rare species under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972. Both species are protected under the act, meaning that no person can kill, injure or capture a wombat without a permit. Provisions relating to the ill-treatment of animals such as wombats can also be found in the Animal Welfare Act 1985.

Despite these protections, South Australians will be rightfully disgusted to learn that as many as a dozen wombats are believed to be buried alive in our state each and every week. South Australian wombats are being buried alive as a form of eradication. Despite their aforementioned strength, wombats cannot dig themselves out of a destroyed burrow, becoming entombed and suffocating for up to 21 days before eventually passing away.

It has become clear to me, as it has to many in this place and the other, that the existing protections for our beloved wombats are simply not enough. More than 50,000 people have signed the Wombat Awareness Organisation's petition to stop wombats from being buried alive, and today the Malinauskas Labor government sees that call and will legislate to protect wombats and their homes.

I understand that to support this bill in the other place the government introduced further amendments to the bill, which were supported by the mover. The first was to insert a provision that landholders are permitted to destroy a wombat burrow without a permit only where it poses a risk to human safety, stock, farming crops and machinery or infrastructure. This provision would not derogate from the requirement of compliance with the National Parks and Wildlife Act or the Animal Welfare Act.

The other main amendment was to allow the minister to declare a wombat burrow protection zone, a geographical area were a person must not, without a permit granted by the minister, destroy, damage or disturb the burrow of a wombat. These provisions are focused on protecting safety, infrastructure and industry and are not intended to enable unreasonable damage to wombat burrows.

As the Department for Environment and Water suggests, we must continue to encourage a 'living with wildlife' approach to how people think about and interact with wildlife. The fact is that the destruction of wombat burrows is rarely effective when undertaken as the only means of managing their impact on farmers and landowners. A range of nonlethal methods of wombat management is recommended to landowners, including but not limited to fence alterations, wombat gates and marking burrows.

Where burrow destruction is permitted, it must only be done in accordance with the relevant code of practice for humane destruction. Destroying a burrow with the intent to kill an animal is simply not in line with the values of the overwhelming majority of South Australians and would likely be an offence under the National Parks and Wildlife Act and the Animal Welfare Act. However, by passing this bill, we can make it explicitly clear to farmers and landowners that this behaviour will not be tolerated.

This bill also provides us with an opportunity to increase compliance and education efforts to raise awareness for the nonlethal methods of wombat management and to reduce identified risks and impacts and the inefficiency of destroying wombat burrows in isolation from other management methods to reduce risks and impacts to safety and machinery.

Before I wrap up, I want to take this opportunity to provide some fun facts about wombats. As I am sure many of you know, and I know a number of my colleagues know, their poos are cube shaped and, still focusing on their rear ends, they use their bums to block their burrows to keep predators away. A group of wombats is known as a wisdom, and wombats can run at 40 km/h. If you are looking for more wombat content, I really encourage you to follow the CSIRO on Instagram for their weekly wombat doses, which are on Wombat Wednesday. How good is it that you only have one sleep to wait for the next one!

Once again, I would like to thank the Hon. Tammy Franks MLC for introducing this bill in the other place, and I thank everyone who has taken a stand to protect this South Australian icon. I look forward to seeing the successful passage of this bill under a new, more compassionate state government, and I commend this bill to the house. Go wombats!

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (12:51): Just very briefly, and I will not take the house's time to reflect on my personal love of wombats and so on, but I want to draw attention to the structure of what will be section 68AA(3) and the establishment of a new concept called the wombat burrow protection zone.

In the interest of avoiding a committee on this point, and just from a legislative point of view, it seems to me that the operation of the system of requiring a permit, or not, is inherently now dependent upon, first of all, the existence of a wombat burrow protection zone, so that you can be outside it or not. It begs the question as well, it seems to me, if it is to be something that is declared by the minister in a notice in the Gazette, of whether that is then contemplated to be something that would apply in a temporal sense to deal with prevailing circumstances, or is it at once and for all: we know this because of the nature of known habitats and so on?

If that is the case, it would seem to me to be helpful to have that, as it were, known for the purposes of this debate—and it may be that it is not that far off. But, as a threshold point, the concept of the zone seems to require that at least something is established so that you can be outside it or not, otherwise the reality is that the only provisions doing any work here will be those that require a permit and all the relevant permit provisions.

As I have already indicated, there is no clear sense of what such a zone would be reflecting—that is, known habitat on the one hand, or some other particularly temporal intervention in particular circumstances that might prevail depending on other activities that are going on on land from time to time. I just make those observations about that definition in particular and the work that it would do in the act, and that is in the interests of those who would need to be navigating this new provision.

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (12:55): I rise to indicate my support for the National Parks and Wildlife (Wombat Burrows) Amendment Bill 2022, a bill introduced by the Hon. Tammy Franks MLC in the other place. In South Australia, we have two species of this beautiful creature: the southern hairy-nosed wombat and the common wombat, sometimes known as the bare-nosed wombat.

Both of these species are protected under the national parks act, which means that, under sections 51 and 68, the current framework provides that a person must not take a protected animal without a permit—this includes killing, injuring or capturing a wombat—or interfere, harass or molest a protected animal or undertake an activity that is, or is likely to be, detrimental to the welfare of a protected animal unless they hold a permit to do so or satisfy an exemption criteria.

There are also provisions relating to the ill-treatment of animals in the Animal Welfare Act 1985. Despite this, hundreds of wombats are being buried alive through the destruction of their burrows, and I am pleased to support this bill that provides further protection for wombats—our state fauna emblem, the southern hairy-nosed wombat.

I would also like to thank the Hon. Emily Bourke MLC, who amended the bill to insert a provision that allows the minister to declare a wombat burrow protection zone: a geographical area where a person must not, without a permit granted by the minister, destroy, damage or disturb the burrow of a wombat. These provisions are focused on protecting safety infrastructure and industry and are not intended to enable unreasonable damage to wombat burrows—for example, in a natural environment outside these circumstances. The bill also includes a provision for the protection zone, in which landholders may have a reasonable need to damage burrows from time to time due to human safety and risks of damage to equipment and infrastructure.

The Department for Environment and Water encourages a 'living with wildlife' approach to how people think about and interact with wildlife. Burrow destruction is rarely effective when undertaken as the only means of managing a wombat population. The department recommends other methods to landholders: nonlethal methods of management for wombats, including electric fencing, fence alterations, wombat gates and marking burrows. Destroying burrows with the intent of destroying an animal is not an approved method of destruction and would likely be an offence.

When we think of protecting wombats and their homes, it is also interesting to note, as the member for Elder pointed out, that a group of wombats is called a wisdom. Wombats can live in the wild for up to 26 years. Being a nocturnal animal, they come out to feed in the early evening and during the night. Wombats sometimes emerge from their burrows to sun themselves on sunny days.

In protecting wombat burrows, it is useful to know that wombat burrows can cover a large area and will have many entrances. All wombat species live in burrows, often creating complex networks of burrows, with tunnels and chambers that can extend for up to 150 metres in radius. It would be a sad day if we lost this marsupial mammal that is indigenous to Australia. The name 'wombat' comes from the now nearly extinct Dharug language spoken by the Dharug people who originally inhabited the Sydney area. I commend the bill to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mrs Pearce.

Sitting suspended from 12:59 to 14:00.