The Nationals are calling on producers to make their voices heard on wild dog issues.
It comes after the government revoked an unprotection order on wild dogs in the north-west of the state in March 2024 without consultation and with only a few hours’ notice.
The Nationals’ Member for Mildura, Jade Benham, said since the changes were introduced, we have seen extensive wild dog attacks. In many cases the dogs do not actually kill stock but maul them to such an extent that they suffer a slow and painful death.
Ms Benham has raised the issue in Parliament several times with a response received from the Government of a targeted $550,000 pilot program to be delivered in the north-west over the next 12 months, with a focus on supporting farmers and building awareness about non-lethal control options to protect livestock from predation on private land.
In a further blow, the government confirmed it expects land managers to assume anything previously considered to be a wild dog is now a protected dingo.
“This is heartbreaking for producers who invest so much time, energy and money into their livestock, and is compounded by the fact Labor has no desire to put any supports in place for farmers.”
“Now we see a survey that Labor is sending only to select producers, and where the framing of the questions does not give responders an opportunity to paint the full picture of the issues they are facing,” Ms Benham said.
“There is growing anger that Labor consistently prioritises animal extremists over supporting our farmers to grow food and fibre and drive the Victorian economy, and I am very concerned a decision has already been made to end the wild dog management program in Victoria.
“I urge farmers to complete this survey and force Labor to confront the dire nature of the problem they have created with their irresponsible decision-making.
”Labor can’t manage our delicate agriculture industry, and Victorian food producers are paying the price.”
Ms Benham said people could visit surveymonkey.com/r/LivestockPredationSurvey to have their say before August 6.
