Feral Animal Control

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:44): Supplementary: what is the minister's government doing to ensure that feral animal populations are controlled in the event of an exotic disease incursion?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:44): Certainly, that was an issue that was raised last year not only when there was the increased threat of foot-and-mouth disease but also when we announced the increased funding, the over $6 million of funding which was announced towards the end of last year, for assistance to address the possibility of an emergency animal disease.

Some of that funding is provided for a range of different traceability issues, and certainly there has been work continuing. We do a lot of feral animal control in conjunction with the landscape boards, and they have been doing an excellent job. For example, with the feral deer in the South-East, I have been very pleased to meet with them as well about the issue and to see some of the improvements that we have made to programs.

The aerial culling, of course, is an important part of that. I was able to see that both when I was in the South-East looking at the deer culling and also last Friday when I was on Kangaroo Island to celebrate the excellent work that people have done there, not only in terms of the feral pigs but also in terms of some weed eradication programs, among others.

So we have done some very forward-thinking things. I'm very glad that we have been able to continue to build on those programs. Addressing the issues around feral disease control is really important now, because it's not only addressing the issues we have now but also preparing our state in the event of an emergency animal disease outbreak.