Millions of native animals, including wallabies, green rosellas, cockatoos and wombats have been killed in Tasmania under property protection permits in the last three and a half years. These staggering figures were released by the Tasmanian government at budget estimates recently.
It is quite galling that Primary Industries Minister Jo Palmer has allocated $460,000 to rehabilitate injured wildlife. While we welcome any assistance to wildlife carers, it beggars belief her department also rubber stamps the death warrants of millions of our native treasures. One act does not negate the other.
The Tasmanian Greens have called for a parliamentary inquiry into the management and protection of wildlife in Tasmania. Landowners can obtain ‘property protection’ permits that allow them to kill wildlife to prevent damage to crops, stock or infrastructure, but with almost no checks and balances. Rather than address this problem, Minister Jo Palmer has thrown up a smokescreen.
The native animal numbers killed annually are horrendous. In 2021 alone, 859,304 native animals were killed under property protection permits. That’s nearly 100 deaths every hour for an entire year, while volunteers have been working to help injured wildlife recover.
Minister Palmer’s pretence of caring for native wildlife fools no-one while she continues to oversee this wholesale slaughter. The numbers of dead forester kangaroos, possums, swans, swamp hens and even currawongs speak loudest of all to this hypocrisy.