Ms O’CONNOR question to MINISTER for PARKS, Mr DUIGAN
I ask this question on behalf of our Parks spokesperson, Tabatha Badger. Minister, as you know, the State of the Environment Report, which we are yet to have any comprehensive or even scant response from government on its recommendations, states that:
Feral deer and cats have grown in numbers and range to the extent they’re now major pest animals and are likely to have an adverse environmental impact across most parts of Tasmania.
I do not know if your department informed you of this, minister, but this year feral deer have been photographed grazing on the critically endangered miena cider gum. Recommendation 13 calls for the removal of protections of wild fallow deer from regulatory frameworks, including the Nature Conservation Wildlife Regulations of 2023. Given the very significant impact of fallow deer on public protected lands for which you are responsible, and their potential to have an enormous impact in the future, what actions have you or your department taken towards enacting and responding to this legislation and taking the necessary steps to remove the protected status of this destructive introduced species?
ANSWER
Mr President, I thank the member for the question and her interest in it. It is one that occupies plenty of government and departmental thinking about how we deal with a range of feral animals in our parks and in our peri‑urban spaces and things of that nature. I note that the removal of the protected status is an issue that sits in Primary Industries and Water, not in the Parks space.
I would, however, point to the great deal of work that Parks has done in the space. There has been aerial culling in the walls of Jerusalem National Park, and peri‑urban deer culls are currently underway on Bruny Island and in other areas of the state. I recognise the sensitivities and difficult nature of that work. This is not an area that we are seeking to – certainly, from a Park’s perspective, we understand the seriousness of it. We understand the threat posed by feral animals in whatever shape or form they might take to our spaces and we are looking for ways to reduce those impacts.
