2016-10-25
Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — My question is to the Minister for Agriculture. Minister, your department has belatedly sought input from environmental organisations into your draft sustainable hunting strategy. When they asked if they could see a copy of the strategy, the department said, 'No, it's a secret document'. Can you tell us whether any stakeholder groups have actually been shown a draft?
[Speech was interrupted.]
Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — Taking the question on notice is a good way to go and check with what others might have done — that is, if others have provided this document to certain selected stakeholders — but could the minister give us a guarantee that she herself has not shared this document with particular stakeholders? Because there is concern out there that policy in relation to the control of pest animals has been designed by recreational hunters for recreational hunters, and given the rising cost to agriculture and to the environment of some of these pest animals, particularly deer, everybody wants to know that this is a policy that has been written not just for the interests of a lobby that happens to have a lot of votes but actually for broader objectives. So can the minister give a guarantee that she has not shared the document selectively?
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