Page 3353 - Week 11 - Thursday, 22 September 1994
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There is another pond system where, I understand, water is being sprayed onto adjoining fields which are leased to farmers. People have found dead cows lying there on occasions, and farmers further downstream in New South Wales have been complaining of dead livestock.
That all points to an environmental problem emanating from the Belconnen tip. I think it is a problem of some magnitude, especially when one considers that Australia is also subject to a number of international agreements with other countries which say, for example, that our livestock are free of various toxins, that they are properly fed and that we are not getting contaminated livestock. There is a fair bit of livestock along the Murrumbidgee which, I am told, would be subject to any despoilants that go through our system there. I have already mentioned reports of dead livestock, and that should be of some concern as well. We have a responsibility to ensure proper management of our effluent and proper management of our tips.
Mr Wood: Whom are you quoting there?
MR STEFANIAK: Why do you not talk to Bryan Pratt, for starters, Mr Wood, and other members of your fishing council who have seen me in relation to this? I have spoken to three or four people on this issue. It is interesting that, in terms of the tip and the sewerage works, they are all concerned about what they do to the Murrumbidgee and to that river system.
Ms Ellis, quite properly, mentioned some other points as well. I was pleased to hear her quote from the report Feral Animals and Invasive Plants in the ACT. Again, on a more positive note, I congratulate the Minister and all parties concerned with the recent Bill to amend the Nature Conservation Act, to which the Opposition also had an input. Hopefully, that will go some way in relation to some of the problems which have been alluded to today.
I will not repeat what Ms Ellis said in relation to paragraph 13.7 of the committee's report - the recommendation regarding kangaroos - except to note that I think it was quite proper that she mentioned it. Farmers and motorists have been crying out about the need for proper culling of, certainly, the eastern grey kangaroo, which now appears to be in plague proportions in parts of the ACT. That creates a problem for farmers and for road users. Also, because of the lack of feed and the number of that type of kangaroo, a lot of them perhaps are starving. It probably would be more humane, as much as anything else, to that variety of kangaroo to take up the recommendations of this report. I think there is quite a ground swell in the community for that to occur.
Feral cats and pigs are another problem which needs to be faced in relation to the ACT environment, especially in Namadgi National Park and throughout the rural areas of the ACT. That is a very real problem, and again the Minister needs to take note of it. The culling of feral pigs and feral cats is something that the Government needs to look at, as well as other means of eradicating those animals which are a quite significant pest.
Mr Moore: Will that include the eastern grey kangaroo, as the report recommended?
MR STEFANIAK: Yes.
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