Page 2309 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 23 June 2010
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Bill, as amended, agreed to.
Kangaroos—cull
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (5.03): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes the:
(a) Government’s decision to conduct a kangaroo cull in ACT reserves;
(b) cull is being informed by the Kangaroo Management Plan and the animal welfare code of practice for kangaroo control;
(c) support for the kangaroo cull from the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment and the RSPCA;
(d) disinformation campaign conducted by some groups about the need for, and methods used, in the cull; and
(e) decision by the Government to bury the kangaroo carcasses rather than offer them for sale;
(2) supports the Government’s decision to conduct this kangaroo cull; and
(3) calls on the Government to ensure:
(a) accurate information about the conduct of the cull is made available to the community; and
(b) that carcasses are disposed of commercially rather than buried.
Since putting this motion on the notice paper, I have received an extensive and very thorough briefing from officials, facilitated by the Chief Minister’s office. I thank the minister for his assistance in that. As a result of that, I had contemplated a modest amendment to this in relation to the last point in my motion, which would be—not so much in relation to this cull, but in relation to prospective or future culls—that we should look at the commercial use of the carcasses rather than burying them.
As a result of the briefing that I received yesterday, it became clear to me that the obstacles that would prevent us from commercially using carcasses from this cull, which is in a narrow window of opportunity between now and the end of July, are too great for us to make any changes to the current plans. But in future—and it is almost certainly the case that we will have future culls—we need to clear the path to ensure that we are not wasteful and we do not bury the carcasses, which could have other, more useful applications.
The Chief Minister has proposed and circulated an amendment very similar to the one that I drafted. As I said to him before, in the spirit of bipartisanship I will defer to him, and we will be supporting his amendment in that area.
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