Question Without Notice No. 407 asked in the Legislative Council on 16 August 2017 by Hon Colin De Grussa
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
WILD DOGS — GOLDFIELDS BARRIER FENCE
407. Hon COLIN de GRUSSA to the Minister for Agriculture and Food:
I refer to the front page of the Kalgoorlie Miner of 16 August 2017, and specifically to comments attributed to the Minister for Agriculture and Food: ''Our government is working to boost sheep numbers in the southern goldfields, including through action on wild dogs.''
(1) Given that the extension to the barrier fence near Esperance was approved and funded by the previous government, will the minister commit to completing this project?
(2) What specifically is the government doing and how much funding is being committed to reducing wild dog numbers in the southern goldfields and Esperance regions?
Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the question.
(1)–(2) We certainly are intending to make a very sizeable contribution to the control of wild dogs. I am concerned that we just keep doing the same thing with apparently worse results, so I am very conscious that we need to get a bit more science and rigour around this project. To that end, we are convening a conference on wild dogs to take place in mid‑September. If we just keep doing the same thing and the results do not appear to be a positive—on all accounts, they seem to be getting worse—it does not seem to be a very sensible course of action. We have already gone ahead in order to allow some activities to continue. There are a number of things we have signed off on, in particular the engagement of a team of doggers that have been traditionally funded. That has been approved and that is underway.
We also have a contestable fund for cell‑fencing trials, which will be $2 million from the federal government and $1.5 million from the state government. I very much believe that we should be extending the state barrier fence. But I ask Hon Colin de Grussa for his help to get Barnaby Joyce to accept—as long as he is here—that we need some federal assistance. I ask the member to understand this: that Queensland got $9 million from the federal government for its particular cell‑fence development; we have been given a total of $2 million. I have asked Barnaby Joyce to contribute another $4 million to provide some equity. We will be more than matching those funds, but we would like to see the federal government give Western Australia the same regard that it has given Queensland in assisting with this problem. I implore the member to get on the phone to Mr Joyce and ask him to give us a hand.