Member for Benambra, Bill Tilley, fears laws designed to protect livestock from wild dogs will be scrapped and promised consultation with people in the Upper Murray is nothing but lip service.
Member for Northern Victoria Region, Wendy Lovell, told the Victorian Parliament last Wednesday that the Victorian government had surrendered to ill-informed propaganda from lobby groups without talking to the farmers who will be most affected.
In September, the Agriculture and Environment Ministers signed a 12-month extension to the Declaration of the Dingo as Unprotected Wildlife, an order that allows dog men to bait and trap wild dogs on public land within 3kms of the farm fence.
The 3km livestock buffer has significantly reduced dog attacks since it was first introduced in 2012.
Ms Lovell said previously the order has been renewed for five years, the one-year extension an interim measure to allow for consultation over “emerging research” that says all wild dogs are dingoes and need to be protected.
“The research was bunkum, generated by a Dingo Foundation acolyte, with very few dogs from the North East in a study of 307 dogs from across Australia,” she said.
“But more importantly when the extension was announced we were promised consultation and six months into a 12-month study we’ve heard nothing.
“Those who’ve lived through the torment and terror of the pre-buffer zone know that the buffer saves livestock.
They will tell you about animals left half eaten, the toll on their mental health and the impact on native animals in the years before 2012.”
Mr Tilley said without the buffer the Upper Muray will become a slaughterhouse.
“Without the buffer the trappers will be limited to private land, the dogs free to attack from the bush at will and we remember the horrific stories and photos of the past,” he said.
“This emerging research is looney left propaganda but we’re hearing that the government may have already rolled over on this.
“We need the buffer and the people with lived experience must be heard before a decision is made.”
This article appeared in the Corryong Courier, 29 February 2024.
