AN announcement that pest and disease preparedness programs were part of a $104 million saving from the Department of Agriculture’s budget last week have prompted concerns about the future of feral pig and deer control.
At this point it is unclear exactly what pest and disease preparedness programs had been cut and exactly what share of the $104m saving came from the pest and disease program.
But the idea of cutting funding from pests and diseases when Foot & Mouth Disease and Lumpy Skin Disease are on Australia’s doorstep in Indonesia has raised concerns.
Feral pig and deer outbreaks have been one of the most topical subjects in recent times, with videos emerging on social media showing dozens of pigs passing through paddocks and producers recently telling Beef Central that culling hundreds of deer in Northern NSW has made little difference to populations.
In response to last week’s budget, Nationals MP Daren Chester said the Government was giving up on the fight against feral animals.
“At the same time, the Government has allowed the federal feral animals, pests, and weeds program to lapse without replacement.
“That means less support for preparedness against serious disease outbreaks and less support for farmers dealing with invasive pests destroying farms and the environment.
“Farmers are already battling exploding deer populations, wild dogs, feral pigs, invasive weeds and growing biosecurity threats, but Labor’s response is to cut preparedness funding and walk away from coordinated pest management.”
Mr Chester said the decisions were particularly alarming given the ongoing threat posed by foot-and-mouth disease, African swine fever, and avian influenza.
“You cannot claim food security is important while cutting pest preparedness and abandoning invasive species control,” Mr Chester said.
As both a beef farmer and a hunter I believe hunters are a massive tool in this problem. I also believe the meat from these animals can be used. Harvesters are a great asset. Experienced and safe hunters are everywhere and can be found through various avenues. I personally work with other farmers, Landcare and other groups. Feel free to reach out to me.
I don’t understand why this meat is being wasted and not sold or marketed as game meat. I know alot of people here in Aistralia that want to buy this game meat but don’t know where to go.
Stakeholders and others only need look back in history to see why the increases in feral animals. As a result of John Howards gun law reforms farmers were no longer as accepting of shooters on their properties and hunter numbers declined rapidly. Despite claims by many so called experts that are in fact only experts in hating private firearm ownership history can show that in areas that had regular shooters feral animal control worked extremely efficiently at no cost to farmers or governments. As States and the Feds increase firearm restrictions to garner more votes by gullible city folk the crisis affecting our biosecurity and farming future will continue to gather momentum.
I am retired with plenty of time like a lot of others that love to hunt r very willing and able to hunt all the ferril animals for free like we have done for years so all you farmers reach out and find us and we will come I have properties near where I live and have the pig and dingo numbers down to almost zero
lets not forget farmers who have after generations of sheep farming have been forced to cease sheep farming due to distruction caused by wild dogs killing and maming there sheep.