ANIMAL WELFARE —
CATTLE DEATHS —NOONKANBAH STATION AND YANDEYARRA RESERVE
1260. Hon JIM CHOWN to the Minister for Agriculture and Food:
In response to my question without
notice asked on 12 February 2019, the minister stated that the Department of
Primary Industries and Regional Development was first made aware of the
situation at Noonkanbah station on 24 December
2018, when in reality, Chris Wilkin, CEO of the Yungngora Association, emailed
the DPIRD Broome office about animal welfare issues and cattle getting bogged
on Noonkanbah station in October of the same year.
(1) Why was this call for
assistance ignored?
(2) Why did it take until 24 December
of that year for DPIRD to react?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I know the member has such
extraordinary faith in my abilities that he feels that a detailed question like
that can be placed without notice.
(1)–(2) I
can say that the incident that led to the existing investigation that has been
going on absolutely took place on I cannot remember whether it was Christmas
Day or Boxing Day. But I do know that the acting head of the department had to divert many departmental staff from their
family festivities to spend the day dealing
with that issue. This is not to say there might not have been—I
certainly have no knowledge of it—allegations made, just as
there are about various properties, including those belonging to non-Aboriginal
pastoralists. But the events that led to the current investigation and to the
extreme intervention by the department were
the result of information that I think may have come in late on 24 December
2018. If the member puts the
question on notice or gives me some notice of the question, I am more than
happy to investigate whether there had been earlier complaints about this
station. But, certainly, that event involved a helicopter pilot who flew over
the property and advised the departmental officers of their concerns. The
department then hired an aircraft and went out to investigate.
The PRESIDENT: I appreciate that from time to time members ask
questions without notice. If the question is about something that is
reasonably current, you would expect an answer—I thank the minister for
her response on this occasion—but if it is about something that is
seemingly historic, you might want to give some notice or advance warning to
the minister so that they can go and do some research for you, member.