Wild Dog Management Advisory Group

The Hon. J.S. LEE (16:58): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation a question about the South Australian Wild Dog Management Advisory Group.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: Livestock SA stated in their October media release that a key concern for livestock producers is the prevalence of wild dogs in the northern pastoral regions and their penetration further south in the state. Board member and Orroroo producer Geoff Power, who chairs the South Australian Wild Dog Management Advisory Group, stated that they have developed a state wild dog action plan, which was presented to minister Hunter in July this year; however, the group is waiting for his formal reply before the plan can go to public consultation. Mr Power said:

If we do not get on top of this problem, we will lose a vibrant, sustainable sheep industry in the pastoral areas and adjacent rangelands.

Recently, the Minister for Primary Industries in New South Wales, Katrina Hodgkinson, announced a major on-ground offensive against wild dog predation across regional New South Wales this spring. My questions to the minister are:

1. With dog numbers increasing in the northern pastoral areas over the last three years, what consultations has the minister had with stakeholders and pastoralists in order to address the issue?

2. Can the minister advise the council why it has taken over three months for the minister to respond to the South Australian Wild Dog Management Advisory Group report?

3. Will the minister clarify when the action plan will be opened for public consultation, and when will the report be implemented to ensure landholders are not caused further economic loss?

4. Why is the government not working with the other tri-states to address the issue?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (17:00): I thank the honourable member for her most important question; however, she is somewhat misled in the basis of her premise about us not working with the other tri-states. In fact, I will educate her in a moment about New South Wales minister Hodgkinson making completely erroneous remarks. I am told, however, these remarks are made by New South Wales quite regularly, every two or three years, about wild dogs appearing in places in South Australia and not being attended to.

We send people out every time they make these allegations and, of course, they are found to be not true. I won't belabour a point about the minister calling wolf too often in this regard because, as I say, they do it every two or three years to us. We go out and check and we find that those allegations are never based in fact. So, I caution the honourable member in taking anything said by New South Wales Liberal ministers with a little grain of salt. You know what they did to us over the River Murray. I will tell you this is exactly the same thing they are doing to us over wild dogs as well, but we will get there in a minute. Wild dogs—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: They are very complimentary of me, I understand. My colleague ministers at a national level are usually from the National Party, and they usually say better things about me than they do about Liberal Party members, but we won't go there today.

Wild dogs, including dingoes, have increased significantly in rangelands south of the dog fence in recent years at the expense of the pastoral sheep industry. I understand that South Australia is probably the last state left, actually, to put any effort into their pastoral sheep industry. Effectively, Queensland and New South Wales I believe have given up on wild dog control, and you will see that many sheep pastoralists have moved into beef production instead in those states.

In response, the South Australian Arid Lands Natural Resource Management Board has led initiatives to improve wild dog control in pastoral areas, particularly the Biteback program, focused on wild dogs inside the dog fence. The South Australian Arid Lands NRM Board is currently reviewing its regional wild dog management plan and is hosting a series of district workshops to get direct input from landholders into what operational and on-ground improvements can be made.

It is important to get a range of views, including pastoral, conservation and Aboriginal perspectives, and the South Australian Arid Lands Regional Management Plan will link with the state-level strategic plan that is currently in development through the SA Wild Dog Advisory Group. These both will assist in the delivery of the National Wild Dog Action Plan, which was released on 4 July and was endorsed by the state government.

I am advised that landholder meetings were held on wild dog and fox control in Burra and Robertstown last month. I understand these meetings were convened by Natural Resources SA Murray Darling Basin. There were presentations there by Ms Heather Miller of Natural Resources SA Arid Lands on the region's Biteback program and by Mr Geoff Power, chair of the SA Wild Dog Advisory Group, on the National Wild Dog Action Plan. Biosecurity SA was also represented at the meeting, I understand.

There have been sporadic incursions of wild dogs into the rangelands and hills in the north of the SA Murray-Darling Basin region in the last 18 months, highlighting the need for increased landholder vigilance for this threat to livestock industries. The meetings increased awareness, I am told, of the threat and how to detect and manage wild dog incursions and will foster greater collaboration between landholders and Natural Resources SA Murray-Darling Basin on prevention activities.

It is vitally important that in fact landholders have buy-in to this program. One of the biggest problems in Queensland and New South Wales, I understand, and indeed also here in South Australia to a lesser extent, is the number of properties that no longer actively control for dogs, and that has knock-on effects for neighbouring pastoralists who may border rangelands that effectively have no wild dog controls whatsoever.

Natural Resources SA Murray-Darling Basin provides technical advice and tools to assist in the control of wild dogs. SA Murray-Darling Basin region is also a beneficiary of SA Arid Lands Biteback program. The Biteback Program was developed to address the increase in dingos inside the dog fence in the SA Arid Lands NRM region and is funded by the SA Sheep Industry Fund, Australian Wool Innovation and SA Arid Lands NRM levy funds.

It encourages land managers to collaborate with their neighbours to undertake coordinated wild dog control across the landscape, and SA Arid Lands wild dog control staff work very closely with the 22 local wild dog planning groups south of the dog fence to tackle wild dogs at a local scale. Biosecurity SA coordinated an aerial baiting program in April of this year to complement Biteback ground baiting. The program delivered 50,000 baits over a 10,000 kilometre flight path across 97 properties in the rangeland south of the dog fence. Funding was provided by the program partner, the SA Sheep Industry Fund.

I have a whole range of details that can perhaps wait for another day—but I can advise the honourable member that there is much activity happening in this area. She should talk to the member for Stuart, perhaps, on how we are collaborating on wild dog control before she comes in with information from a minister in another state which often turns out to be factually incorrect.