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<pstyle:2 – Body Text>Environment Minister, Steve Dimopoulos, has been asked to rule out any reduction in feral pig control programs in East Gippsland.
Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull, asked the Minister in Parliament for confirmation on this matter after it was announced hundreds of jobs were being cut from government departments Department of Energy Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) and Parks Victoria and a leaked document indicated the feral animal control program would be impacted.
“In addition to this, we have also been advised that those who were undertaking these controls will not have their contracts renewed and instead the effort will be consumed by wild dog controllers. There are two major problems with this,” Mr Bull said.
“The first is feral pigs are an increasing problem and control efforts are presently not keeping pace with booming numbers, so more effort is needed, not less.
“The second problem is our wild dog controllers have enough on their plate without additional work.
“Our doggers are also struggling to keep pace with the explosion in numbers that are impacting farmers. They just cannot afford to allocate any time from their current jobs to taking this on.”
Mr Bull highlighted the hypocrisy of this government cutting jobs in DEECA and Parks, while at the same time pushing to create more National Parks.
“They cannot look after the network they currently have, let alone with staff cuts, but to then push to put more State Forest into National Park is ridiculous,” he said.
“The underlying problem we have is this government cannot manage money and country Victorians pay the price.
“We are heading to a State debt of $180 billion with repayments on interest of $26 million a day – that is more than $1 million per hour.
“When you mismanage things to that level, you have to cut funding to important programs and that is what we are seeing here.
“The government racks up debt, pushes ahead with metro projects like the suburban rail loop we cannot afford and we suffer the consequences,” he said.
