FOXES

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. Can the minister inform the chamber about the government's response to the recent inquiry conducted by the Natural Resources Committee into the management of foxes within South Australia?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:03): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. The Natural Resources Committee of this parliament conducted an inquiry into fox control late last year, I think. The report containing its deliberations was tabled in the other place, I am told, on 19 February 2013, and I am pleased that the government has now responded to the five recommendations contained in that report.

As you may be aware, Mr President, in South Australia foxes are a significant threat to our native wildlife and biosecurity, our livestock industry and our natural environment. They are a pest across our state that my department, through Biosecurity SA, has attributed to threatening 14 species of birds, 48 species of mammals, 12 reptile species and two amphibian species. Foxes have been found across the entirety of our state: on farms, around industrial complexes, in national parks and urban parks (such as the linear park), and, I am told, even in the CBD. I am advised that one fox was recently located in the Botanic Gardens.

Foxes are listed under the commonwealth's endangered Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 as 'a key threatening process' in our environment. They are well known by landholders and livestock operators as causing significant damage to their businesses; yet foxes present a different and, in some ways, more challenging threat than other pests such as rabbits, for example. Ultimately, this is because there is currently no biological control for foxes, I am told.

Targeting foxes without complementary efforts upon other pest species could, for example, increase the number of rabbits or feral cats, as foxes prey on rabbits and compete with cats for prey. This is why any attempt to control foxes needs to be carefully thought through, but most importantly any attempt to control foxes must be cost effective.

The Natural Resources Committee made a number of recommendations to government and, whilst the government is generally supportive of their proposals, it is not prepared to support the committee's main recommendation for an urban fox trial. This is because the high cost to implement such a program would not provide a sustained or long-lasting outcome for primary industry or biodiversity.

The model upon which the committee's recommendation was based—the Northern Sydney Regional Fox Baiting Program—has, unfortunately, been unable to provide any conclusive evidence, as far as I am advised, that it has achieved recovery of threatened species in peri-urban bushland. Furthermore, the northern Sydney program continues to be compromised by the difficulty in controlling foxes in areas outside the baited area.

For example, foxes roam free within adjoining industrial estates and residential areas that remain bait free and, through breeding, eventually come to replace those killed through the baiting process in the baited areas. I am advised that the speed at which this occurs is quite rapid. Implementing such a proposal would, therefore, become a continual expenditure of resources with no improvement in native wildlife outcomes and is something that the government cannot justify.

Nevertheless, the government agrees, as requested by the committee, to write to the federal minister requesting that the commonwealth invest in further research towards the development of additional fox control methods. The commonwealth has undertaken such research in the past, such as immuno-sterility control measures and, whilst this was unsuccessful, further research may lead to the development of alternative measures, it is to be hoped.

The South Australian government has also agreed that through Biosecurity SA it will prepare a discussion paper for natural resources management boards on the current state of fox control in South Australia. This will examine the pros and cons of current and future control techniques and consider options for improving landholder participation in coordinated fox control programs.

This will include the consideration of bounties and other approaches used elsewhere in Australia that I know many members in this place and the other place are keen to explore. Feedback on the discussion paper will then form the basis for developing a long-term fox management policy, something that I know most members in this place are keen to see put in place.

The management of foxes is something that we must take very seriously indeed. They present a great threat to many aspects of our environment and also our economy. I am looking forward to working with the Natural Resources Committee of this parliament, including all of our stakeholders in industry and the non-government sector, to make sure that we get this right.