NZ hunters on the payroll

Emma Field |  May 29, 2013

http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2013/05/29/571699_latest-news.html

 

THE Victorian National Parks Association has defended the $42,000 Parks Victoria payment to New Zealand hunters to kill 23 goats.

And said more professional hunters should be used for pest control work, particularly when they have an opportunity to eradicate a population.

Yet no Australian shooters were given the chance to tender for the Parks Victoria work, documents obtained under Freedom of Information by The Weekly Times have revealed.

The revelation has infuriated local residents, who claim other feral animals pose a bigger problem in the Snowy River area and that the money was misspent.

The $1826-a-head cull was done by New Zealand company Backcountry Contracting in May last year to eradicate feral goats near McKillops Bridge, which adjoins the Alpine and Snowy River National Parks.

Parks Victoria hired the professional hunters on the recommendation of invasive animal expert John Parkes, also from New Zealand, who wrote a report for the government on the goat problem.

The project involved four hunters with four dogs, who shot 23 goats and 15 wild pigs over about 10 days.

Parks Victoria wanted to eradicate the entire estimated population of 60 goats.

VNPA spokesperson Phil Ingamels said hiring professional hunting company Backcountry Consulting to eradicate the goat population in the Snowy River National Park region was a sensible idea.

“Feral animal control is best done by highly professional hunters, and most effective when small populations are completely eradicated before they spread,” Mr Ingamels said.

“This saves a great deal of money in the long term."

The New South Wales branch of the Association recently called on their state government to hire professional hunters to cull feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park.

The FOI documents also revealed Parks Victoria judged local accredited Sporting Shooters Association members did not to have the capability to assist with the cull program.

“It is possible to use accredited, professional standard amateur hunters, but only if they are part of a strategic pest control program planned and supervised by the land manager,” Mr Ingamels said.

“Parks Victoria needs a considerable increase in pest control funding, so carefully targeted pest control programs can be expanded across the state. 

“Unstrategic sport shooting, as currently happens with feral deer, has not been successful in reducing the size or range of populations. It generally has the opposite effect.”

Weekly Times Now reported earlier today, that the FOI documents reveal the only other company considered for the work was from the US.

One document said "no equivalent contractor can be sourced within Australia that we are aware of".

It also outlined how Parks Victoria evaded the standard competitive tendering process.

"A competitive process has not been completed as Backcountry Contractors (sic) are specialised contractors that cannot be sourced within Australia."

This has been disputed by Daniel Lewer, director of NSW pest management company Hunter Land Management.

Mr Lewer said there were many companies in Australia, such as his, that should have been given the opportunity to tender for the work.
"There is no reason an Australian company couldn't have done it," he said.

An email from Parks Victoria outlined how it decided not to use local qualified volunteer Sporting Shooters Association members as they did not have the capacity to perform the cull.

This was despite about 60 East Gippsland SSAA members being accredited for crown land, pest-control work.

It is understood SSAA Victoria, which assists Parks Victoria with pest control under a memorandum of understanding, was not consulted about this project.

SSAA Victoria spokesman Colin Wood would not confirm this but said some elements of the project could have been handled better by Parks Victoria.

The American company approached by Parks Victoria, Native Range, recommended Backcountry Consulting, and continued to act as an intermediary in the deal.

One Native Range employee, identified as "Norm" in the FOI emails, and believed to be company president Norm McDonald, enthusiastically endorsed Backcountry Consulting.

"It's not rocket science but ... (the) Kiwis have been doing it for a long time," he wrote in one email.

In another email "Norm" expressed his dislike of Australian wildlife, asking if there were any kangaroos or wallabies in the goat-cull area.

Brush-tailed rock wallabies in East Gippsland's Snowy River region are critically endangered and compete with goats for food and shelter.

The FOI documents include an email from Parks Victoria East Gippsland project manager Matt Holland in August 2011 to "Norm", in which he discussed how to fast-track the Kiwi company into being a preferred supplier to the government.

"Normally contractors need to be on this panel for us to be able to use them," Mr Holland wrote.

"Luckily this panel is up for review ... if it appears everyone is happy, you will need to get on this panel, obviously this may open up more work in the future."

Deddick Valley livestock producer Robyn Fry, who shares a boundary with the national park, said feral pigs were a bigger issue than goats.

She said pigs were destructive and a threat to lambs and she had filed complaints to state government agencies to no avail.

"I cant understand why there is so much fuss about the goats. They are the least of our worries,'' she said.

Bonang sheep and beef producer Robert Belcher said he was overrun with wild dogs, pigs and deer and described the goat cull as a "total waste of time, total waste of money".

Parks Victoria spokesman Ron Waters defended the use of the New Zealand shooters and said they wanted a guaranteed outcome.

"Backcountry had strong expertise in this type of project, and a clearly-established strategy to ensure the desired result," Mr Waters said.

"The goat project was implemented because they believed they could eradicate the population.

"Backcountry Contracting was successful in eradicating the local goat population, this has been confirmed through the use of radio tracking techniques.''

 

 

 

Goat cull misses the mark

Weekly Times Editorial May 29, 2013

http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2013/05/29/571675_opinion-news.html

 

 

 EAST Gippsland locals were surprised when they heard Parks Victoria had brought in NZ hunters to cull goats near McKillops Bridge.

 

No doubt they will be shocked at how much this venture cost, which resulted in Kiwi company Backcountry Consulting killing just 23 goats.

Parks Victoria forked out $42,000 - or $1826 a head - on the feral goats.

All that money went offshore. Not a cent of it went into our tax system through GST.
And the fact Australian companies were not even given a chance to tender for the work is a disgrace.
A simple Google search will bring up several local companies who specialise in pest control and - more importantly - they have experience in Australian conditions.
It appears as if Parks Victoria was in such a rush to spend this money that they bypassed their own rules on competitive tendering.
And they dismissed the use of local volunteer Sporting Shooter Association members, some of whom had helped track the goats by installing cameras with Parks Victoria staff.
These local SSAA members are accredited and many are familiar with the environment in East Gippsland, yet they were not even consulted about the cull.
No one is denying feral goats can be a problem, but there are also other pests in the Snowy River and Alpine National Parks that seem to be ignored.
Wild pigs, wild dogs and Samba deer are all over this region yet Parks Victoria threw all its cash at the goat problem.
It's no wonder people on the land have a pretty dim view of government agencies in charge of managing large parts of our bush and parks.