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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-09-27 Daily Xml
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Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombat

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:50): I rise today to speak about the southern hairy-nosed wombats purported and reported to have been buried alive in the Murraylands. I do so not for the first time in this place. I have raised the issue of the culling and the killing of wombats in this place many times. Back in 2011, it was revealed through my freedom of information requests to the then minister, Paul Caica, that between 2006 and 2011 there had been some 139 permits issued over that time for the culling of southern hairy-nosed wombats, not just in the Murraylands but also on the West Coast, and that some 900 or so wombats had been culled in this time.

The concern at that stage was that the numbers were escalating. I took some assurance, however, from the words of the then minister Paul Caica, who advised that not a single one of those wombats killed were subjected to having their warrens or burrows bulldozed and burying them alive, because, of course, that is illegal.

To live with native wildlife in this country, we have a system of rules and indeed there is a permit system. For a farmer or a primary producer to destroy native wildlife, and in this case the southern hairy-nosed wombat, they first have to apply for a permit. The maximum penalty for destroying a hairy-nosed wombat without that permit is $2,500 or six months imprisonment. We take this quite seriously. There is court discretion to impose additional penalties if more than one animal is involved.

That permit requires that culling to be done through a shot to the wombat's head, or in the case of pouch young, decapitation, or striking with a blunt instrument on the head. Even with this permit, it is illegal, as I said, to bury wombats alive in this state. Yet over the winter break we heard, and it was certainly worldwide news, reports of a Murraylands property where the warrens had seemingly been bulldozed in, covered in, and reports that wombats had been buried alive and had been killed that way or were in the process of dying.

Bridgette Stevens of the Wombat Awareness Organisation raised the concern and she told The Advertiser at the time that 12 days after she reported it to the department, she watched the department out there digging into those burrows with shovels and removing wombats. The Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources has issued some concerning statements on this matter. It is quite curious that the initial statement by DEWNR stated that the investigators, and I quote, 'do not believe that any wombats are trapped underground' and confirmed that they had removed seven dead wombats from the property.

The day after that statement was released, however, there was a new statement from DEWNR. That statement claimed, from some unidentified wombat experts, that, and I quote, 'Any buried wombats would be able to dig themselves out,' and that they had removed nine wombats from the property. Which is it? Were there wombats there, buried alive, trying to dig themselves out, but the department was not concerned because they thought they could dig their own way out, or did the department take every step necessary in the first place to ensure that no wombats had been buried alive on that property, contrary to the rules of the permit, contrary to the law?

The last statement from DEWNR has since stated that reopening the warrens would destroy the habitat, and there has been nothing more from DEWNR. This week, there has been nothing from the minister, and yet this was a matter that produced enormous international interest and certainly many, many thousands of signatures on a petition of concern with regard to this.

What I would say to this department is: culling is lawful, cruelty is illegal, cruelty should be taken seriously and we need to get to the truth. The truth should not be being buried, and we should be receiving assurances from the minister in this place that no wombats were buried, as the truth appears to be.

Here, the Greens reiterate our previous calls: we need an independent office of animal welfare, not just in this state but in this nation. If we cannot trust the department to give us truthful answers and to take seriously animal cruelty, then we need an independent body to not just investigate but enforce the laws we do have.

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