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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-02-05 Daily Xml
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Feral Deer

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:29): My question is to the Minister for Environment. What plans are in place to ensure the roadside deer culling program is conducted safely and without risk to the public. Mr Speaker, with your leave and the leave of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: Professional shooters are culling deer in the Limestone Coast over the next few months. There are concerns from constituents that the public has not been given enough information and the program may not be legally compliant.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy) (14:30): Thank you very much for the question. I am happy to give an explanation of the way in which this part of the program is being managed and why the community should have confidence that it is being done so safely.

I would note that the questions about this part of the program (the roadside) have come probably from two main directions. One is, as has been articulated by the member, the question of wanting to be assured that safety protocols are being put in place. The other is that there seems to be a consistent underlying question that is coming from people who otherwise are very much a fan of hunting deer, but hunting in a way that they would like to see go on into the future, and that is antithetical to the approach of this government. Indeed, it was established under the previous government that deer are a pest and need to be eradicated.

So I make no apology for wanting to eradicate deer from South Australia, other than those that have the eartags and are being appropriately fenced and therefore are treated as farmed animals. But it is, as I say, a legitimate question from the perspective of the local member wanting to know how safely this is being done. The reason we need to eradicate the deer is that we have an enormous number of them.

A few years ago it was assessed at about 40,000 deer across South Australia, of which about 18,000 have been eradicated or killed during this process, although of course in the period they are constantly breeding up, so we can't say that we are necessarily quite halfway there. They have done damage in just one recent year with an estimate of reducing agricultural productivity by some $36 million. They are a clear and present danger to primary producers, and the vast majority of primary producers understand that and are furious with those who are trying to protect deer remaining in the landscape.

Much of this is done through aerial shooting, particularly throughout the South-East or the Limestone Coast of South Australia, but there are deer that are being found in roadside refuges and there is a particular concentration around Kingston South-East. Therefore, a decision has been made to get in on the ground to those roadsides. The program is going to run from 1 February, so a few days ago, through to 30 June. The shooting time is 5pm to 4am, so at a time overnight when there is very little traffic. The location is between Cantara Road to the north and Murrabina Road to the south. So that is the area. They will then identify the particular place, about 10 days per month, where there will be shooting at a particular place in that roadside where there is a concentration of deer that need to be eradicated.

The way in which safety is managed is, first of all, that there needs to be an appropriate amount of information provided. So the landholders are informed once an area has been identified for the next series of shooting. The landowners are asked to tell any staff members or any visitors that that is occurring. There also is roadside signage so that people have advance knowledge that this will be taking place over the next several nights.

Another way of thinking about safety is of course that the right people are doing it, and we have a contractor who is qualified to do this, has the appropriate equipment and is operating under the procedures that are lawful. There is to be no shooting across the road, of course; it is only into where the animals are. I will give the number in case anyone is watching or reading Hansard.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: To volunteer?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: Not to volunteer, minister. The landscape board number, if people would like to know more details, is (08) 8429 7550. I think all or at least the vast majority of South Australians understand that this is something that has to happen, is being done professionally and being done carefully.

The SPEAKER: We have a very large TV audience. We perhaps should have run that phone number along the bottom of the TV screen. Let's see if this is supplementary.

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