By RUSSELL BENNETT
FEDERAL Environment Minister Tony Burke has taken a stand against the wild animals threatening the habitats of some of Australia’s most beloved animals.
He used a forum at Emerald Secondary College earlier this month as a platform to back a push to use professional hunters to cull feral animals threatening the helmeted honeyeater and Leadbeater’s possum habitats at Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve.
Representatives from a host of hills environment groups put forward a wide range of concerns at the question-and-answer forum that was hosted by Mr Burke and La Trobe MP Laura Smyth.
Friends of Helmeted Honeyeater member Bob Anderson said samba and fallow deer were “causing havoc” on the Yellingbo Nature Reserve, and that the animals had been impinging on the group’s work.
“We’ve gone to the situation now where we’ve put 1.8 metre high fences around everything,” Mr Anderson said, before adding that the reserve was “beginning to look like a concentration camp”.
Mr Burke responded by saying he was in favour of “proper, licensed professionals” being paid to shoot the feral animals, and suggested the government could fund it.
He said the Biodiversity Fund was the best way of providing money to help protect local animal habitats through culling.
“I’m in favour of professional shooters being paid to conduct culls of feral animals,” he said simply.
“There’s a view in New South Wales of ‘isn’t it terrible if it’s an animal that looks pretty like a horse’.
“(But) my view is quite simple, and on many occasions I fund those sorts of projects.”
Mr Burke identified a host of different species that are under threat around Australia, such as the turtle population in North Queensland that is being attacked by feral pigs.
“The best source of funding for these sorts of projects is through the Biodiversity Fund,” he said.
“It’s funded by the price on carbon – but if that’s gone, the biodiversity fund is gone.”
Mr Burke said the Federal Government was concerned about “the protection of species, the protection of habitats, and showing some foresight about the future of our environment right around the nation”.
He joined the Labor Party off the back of the Save the Daintree campaign and said he had a “simple view” on national parks.
“We talk a lot about being a government that doesn’t leave people behind,” he said.
“We need to not leave future generations behind when it comes to the environment.
“The only way we become the good ancestors that we should be, and that we don’t leave the next generation behind, is by absolute vigilance, relentless effort and by making sure that… we don’t waste a single conversation in letting people know what’s going on.”
Ms Smyth said she had received correspondence from voters throughout the electorate who wanted answers to their questions on the environment.
