Page 1883 - Week 06 - Thursday, 30 July 2020

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the wombat working group, two with backgrounds in research, have had direct involvement or oversight of mange treatment trials. Two members are qualified ecologists with extensive field experience in wildlife population monitoring and management. There are also two rangers on the working group who have been involved with mange treatment trials.

Operational Parks and Wildlife Conservation staff (of which there are seven members on the wombat working group) follow standardised protocols for mange assessment to inform decision making around treatment or euthanasia of individual animals in the field.

The 17 members of the working all have field experience in wildlife management including with wombats. The strong collective expertise is considered to be significant at both population and species level, of mange in wombats and the challenges concerning treatment of affected animals. The diversity of members’ skills facilitates a holistic and effective approach to this problem.

(9) Common wombats are a protected species in the ACT under the Nature Conservation Act 2014. To gain more robust information on ACT wombat populations, the Wombat Working Group seeks to participate as part of a nationally coordinated approach. Monitoring will provide information on wombat populations within the ACT and the changes in distribution, abundance and prevalence of mange in targeted populations of wombats. This information can then be used to guide conservation and management actions and to develop an evidence-based management plan for the species.

(10) Two members of the Wombat Working Group recently participated in the national workshop and government roundtable on wombat mange, which was held in June 2020. The online workshop was attended by representatives from five jurisdictions (ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, NSW and South Australia), in addition to wombat mange experts from the University of Tasmania and University of Western Sydney, and veterinarians from Wildlife Health Australia. While this first workshop established a national communications network among attendees, there is further potential for the national network to inform and develop a framework for best practice mange management.

The ACT Wombat Working Group seeks to explore opportunities for the ACT to collaborate with external organisations and other jurisdictions in coordinated and strategic research on mange treatment in wombats. The ACT Wombat Working Group is also developing standardised protocols for the assessment of mange in wombats and decision-making around euthanasia in line with recommendations and practices adopted by other jurisdictions.

Government—hygienic paper supplies policy
(Question No 3157)

Ms Le Couteur asked the Chief Minister, upon notice, on 19 June 2020 (redirected to the Minister for Government Services and Procurement):

(1) What requirements does the Government have for the supply of toilet paper and paper towel.


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