WILD DOGS —
CONTROL MEASURES
1296. Hon ALISON XAMON to the Minister for Agriculture and Food:
I refer to the classification of
dingoes as declared pests under section 22 of the Biosecurity and Agriculture
Management Act 2007.
(1) Is the minister aware of the significant
international scientific support for alternative nonlethal mechanisms to
control apex predators?
(2) Does the
minister acknowledge the evidence that killing apex predators like dingoes may
increase the number of smaller feral predators such as cats and foxes?
(3) Has any monitoring of the killing of dingoes under
the ''Western Australian Wild Dog Action Plan 2016–2021''
been undertaken?
(4) If no to (3),
how can the minister be confident that actions taken against dingoes are not a threat
to the long-term survival of this ecologically and culturally significant
animal?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the
question.
(1)–(4) There will be a review next year to determine the
outcomes to date of the wild dog action plan and to guide the focus of programs going forward. We had
directed part of the fund for research and development, and I was hopeful that
we might get some imaginative sorts of alternative thinking projects come
forward under that banner, but I do not think we can say that that
indeed happened. Although it is clear that
the sheep industry cannot coexist with a significant wild dog population, there
is dispute about how to best deal with them in other areas. We
acknowledge the need to understand how the control of wild dogs and other
ferals impacts on each other and the role of wild dogs in natural systems as
well as farming systems.