Mr BURKE - 1994-11-29
I understand that the Conservation Commission has just completed its first capture and release of East Point wallabies using the sedative, alpha chloralose. Could the minister provide an update on the success of the trial so far?
Mr Perron interjecting.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I will answer the Chief Minister's interjection. In fact, the mortality rate in respect of the 33 wallabies that we shifted from East Point to Fogg Dam was zero. All were tranquillised successfully, placed in hessian bags and removed to Fogg Dam. We fitted them with radio transmitters because it is a big uplift. The wallabies are transferred to a totally different environment and we are monitoring them. At Fogg Dam, there is an estimated 15 t of water pythons. There has been one downside in that we have 8 orphan joeys whose mothers rejected them in the transfer. We are looking after them and will release them in the fullness of time. We are monitoring whether the wallabies will find the good areas. The Leader of the Opposition shakes his head and smiles. East Point wallabies are a big problem.
Mr Ede: We have people in the Northern Territory who are in a worse situation.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Conservation has the floor. There is far too much chatter.
Mr COULTER: Once we have established that we can set up breeding colonies at Fogg Dam, we believe this will provide a long-term answer to the obvious overpopulation of the wallabies at East Point. This problem has continued for too long.
If the Leader of the Opposition believes that there are people in the Territory who are living in worse conditions than those wallabies, he needs to raise that kind of issue rather than the type of MPI the opposition proposed for discussion last Thursday. The only matter of public importance that the opposition has raised so far involved something that was happening at Borroloola or something that the member for Nhulunbuy said was wrong in Katherine, and
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that discussion lasted for 7 minutes. It has been the same story in Question Time today. I wonder whether the Leader of the Opposition is fair dinkum about the concerns of Territorians. As I have asked before, what happened to our shocking debt, the economic management of this government that had left the Territory economy in tatters, the participation rate that we used to hear about and the Northern Territory's unacceptably high unemployment levels, about which the opposition hammered this side of the House? We have not heard a word about those issues from members opposite since the election. Perhaps they are still in shock, but it is a far cry from the cockiness that we heard from the member for Wanguri, who said 'Get in your car, Marshall. It is waiting for you outside. Go to the Administrator now'. We hear little from members opposite about the real issues affecting Territorians. Instead, we put up with the kind of nonsense that we have had this morning.
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Mr Perron interjecting.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I will answer the Chief Minister's interjection. In fact, the mortality rate in respect of the 33 wallabies that we shifted from East Point to Fogg Dam was zero. All were tranquillised successfully, placed in hessian bags and removed to Fogg Dam. We fitted them with radio transmitters because it is a big uplift. The wallabies are transferred to a totally different environment and we are monitoring them. At Fogg Dam, there is an estimated 15 t of water pythons. There has been one downside in that we have 8 orphan joeys whose mothers rejected them in the transfer. We are looking after them and will release them in the fullness of time. We are monitoring whether the wallabies will find the good areas. The Leader of the Opposition shakes his head and smiles. East Point wallabies are a big problem.
Mr Ede: We have people in the Northern Territory who are in a worse situation.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Conservation has the floor. There is far too much chatter.
Mr COULTER: Once we have established that we can set up breeding colonies at Fogg Dam, we believe this will provide a long-term answer to the obvious overpopulation of the wallabies at East Point. This problem has continued for too long.
If the Leader of the Opposition believes that there are people in the Territory who are living in worse conditions than those wallabies, he needs to raise that kind of issue rather than the type of MPI the opposition proposed for discussion last Thursday. The only matter of public importance that the opposition has raised so far involved something that was happening at Borroloola or something that the member for Nhulunbuy said was wrong in Katherine, and
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that discussion lasted for 7 minutes. It has been the same story in Question Time today. I wonder whether the Leader of the Opposition is fair dinkum about the concerns of Territorians. As I have asked before, what happened to our shocking debt, the economic management of this government that had left the Territory economy in tatters, the participation rate that we used to hear about and the Northern Territory's unacceptably high unemployment levels, about which the opposition hammered this side of the House? We have not heard a word about those issues from members opposite since the election. Perhaps they are still in shock, but it is a far cry from the cockiness that we heard from the member for Wanguri, who said 'Get in your car, Marshall. It is waiting for you outside. Go to the Administrator now'. We hear little from members opposite about the real issues affecting Territorians. Instead, we put up with the kind of nonsense that we have had this morning.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016