0:00

Music.

0:09

Of all, your monthly gateway to the captivating world of Australian deer.

0:13

Join us as we explore the latest news and events shaping landscapes of wild deer across Australia.

0:19

Tune in for your monthly dose of all things deer, exclusively on the Australian Deer Podcast.

0:29

Joining us today is Sean Kilkenny, the leader of advocacy and deer management

0:33

with the Australian Deer Association. Welcome, Sean. Thanks, Paul. Good to be with you today.

0:39

And today marks the first of our RAW podcast.

0:44

Would you like to explain to people what we hope to achieve with this new format?

0:48

Yeah, no problems at all. The RAW will be a monthly update on the latest news

0:52

and events regarding wild deer in Australia.

0:55

A short and easy to consume podcast that keeps you informed and up to date on the latest topics.

1:00

There you go. Well, that should be well received by

1:03

the deer hunters out there looking forward to

1:06

this and we're excited to hear some people's feedback about what they might

1:09

like to hear and any subjects that they would like to for us to deep dive on

1:14

yep and speaking of which sean what are the three areas we're going to be covering

1:19

today so today we're going to touch off on the animal care and protection bill Bill.

1:25

The going is on with the central highlands and the land tenure issue there in Victoria.

1:31

And then finally, we'll wrap it up with the fallout from the Tasmanian election.

1:36

Beautiful. Okay, so we'll get straight into it. The Animal Care and Protection

1:40

Bill, what is it and what is it replacing?

1:43

So basically, the Animal Care and Protection Bill is replacing the Prevention

1:47

of Cruelties to Animals Act, which was originally written in 1986.

1:52

So this new care and protection bill is designed to replace that and effectively

1:59

look at it through a new lens of not necessarily just the prevention of cruelty,

2:04

but then also to consider moving from animal welfare to animal rights.

2:09

Okay. Okay. So what's the potential significance and its impacts on deer hunters?

2:15

So this is an interesting one where it changes the way that animals are viewed

2:20

within the legislative framework.

2:22

The movement from welfare to rights is fairly significant.

2:27

That's something that was seen throughout society as a whole already.

2:32

That has many implications about the onus that's placed on people that are responsible for animals.

2:39

Being a bit more broad than what it was in the

2:42

past this is where it gets interesting with deer

2:46

hunting per se where under the current prevention

2:49

of cruelties to animals act the activity

2:52

in of itself of hunting is currently exempt

2:56

from the act so the act doesn't actually cover it we obviously

2:59

have then game regulations that manage that so there's no ability for people

3:05

to not have any will be absolved of responsibility for animal welfare but it's

3:09

handled in a different way one of the things that we fought or really hard on

3:14

on this was to ensure that remained. So there's kind of like an inherent contradiction between like an animal welfare

3:21

perspective and then the reality that you harvest an animal yep that sort of

3:27

doesn't reconcile and so our argument given is that, well, ultimately,

3:31

you actually shouldn't have this in the act at all, even if you provide an exception to the act,

3:37

which is what they've done, which is good, but not including it at all,

3:42

having it adjacent is ideal.

3:45

But the reality is, with the exception that effectively nothing will change

3:50

or should change for recreational deer hunting, which is quite good news,

3:55

and it was a pretty significant win on our behalf.

3:58

Beautiful. Looking forward, what's the timeframe for the completion of the bill to become an act?

4:05

So they've just finished one

4:07

of the latest consultation such feedback sessions. I wouldn't expect...

4:13

Rewriting all the passing of this through pile for probably another couple of

4:17

years so it's a bit of a slower burn but we are getting to the pointy end of

4:20

this whole process there's been some movement with the end of native timber

4:25

harvesting and associated potential changes to land tenure the current focus

4:29

on the central highlands area sean would you like to elaborate.

4:32

Yes there's a bit of a bit to unpack on this one people are obviously aware

4:36

of the concept of the Great Forest National Park.

4:39

And the whole purpose or one of the original purposes on people campaigning

4:43

to create the Great Forest National Park was as a way or a means to end the

4:48

native timber harvesting industry in Victoria,

4:50

which obviously did a lot of its work through that central highlands,

4:54

big river, state forest.

4:57

If a land changes to a national park, clearly you can't then continue logging

5:02

operations, which would then effectively break the economic model of the timber

5:07

harvest and then prevent it from happening.

5:10

As a result, before that could actually eventuate with the creation of a park,

5:14

there was a decision to end timber harvesting in Victoria regardless,

5:18

and that came into effect on 1 January.

5:21

So whilst in the past people were advocating for a Great Forest National Park

5:27

to prevent native timber harvesting from continuing, that's now been stopped regardless.

5:32

Regardless so in in effect the wind's being

5:35

taken out of the sail for the creation of that park because their

5:39

ultimate goal of stopping native timber

5:42

harvesting has occurred yep where it ties into land tenure which is where we

5:48

come into play is for the most part all of the the locking occurred on state

5:53

forest in state forest is where you can undertake a wide variety of recreational

5:59

activities activities, in particular deer hunting with dogs, be it hounds or gundogs.

6:05

Should that land tenure change post-native timber harvesting to something else,

6:11

then there would be a consequence for the activities that are allowed to operate

6:15

or be conducted within no certain land tenures.

6:18

That's something that a lot of people aren't necessarily aware of because they

6:22

just think, oh, you change the land tenure, here's a new name,

6:26

everything continues on as it were.

6:28

But no, the devil is in the detail and should there be a change there would

6:32

be consequences to land users and then the fight would be on to then get access

6:37

to the newly formed national park,

6:41

let's just say that they did create a national park and

6:43

we don't know how big it was or where it was or whatever but let's just conceptually

6:48

work with that there would be a consequence where

6:51

no one with a dog would be able to hunt

6:54

or even bring your dog into that park yeah but personally i've got a gun dog

6:58

that would mean that i couldn't go there with my pointer because it's a national

7:01

park there'd be hound crews that couldn't go to where they were possibly before

7:05

people that normally camped that would have dogs wouldn't have access to those

7:09

same areas under the same circumstances. So the creation of that would be a big change agent for a lot of people.

7:17

And that's something that we're working really hard with government about addressing those concerns.

7:22

And how's that looking at the moment? Recently, we've actually got some fairly good news out of the government with

7:28

the creation of the Great Outdoors Task Force.

7:30

This task force in of itself is focused on ensuring,

7:35

while working towards the recognition and acknowledging the role that recreational

7:39

users of the land have a say and that they are stakeholders in deciding future

7:46

land tenures and what that looks like, which is quite exciting.

7:49

So we've been working on this for, well, probably a year.

7:52

Obviously, Great Forest National Park has been going on for the best part of

7:55

a decade regardless, but things have come to a head much more recent and we've

7:59

been fortunate enough to be working quite hard focusing on this issue about the consequences.

8:05

Consequences and that's where the government have then come to

8:08

taken a step forward and recognized recreational deer

8:11

hunters so the ADA got a nod on that but also other

8:14

bush users such as the four-wheel drivers and fishers that

8:18

hey you guys use this land you're effectively

8:21

the number one stakeholder of it from a recreational point of

8:24

view now we want to make sure that we can engage

8:27

and speak with you to try and decide what we

8:30

will do moving forward yep so it sounds fairly positive

8:33

at this stage look it's certainly much better than what

8:35

it was say eight months ago the creation of that task force was not an accident

8:41

the government do things on purpose so it's quite positive that they have done

8:45

that over the next probably month or so as the details start to get filled out

8:50

on this task force and what it's undertaking and its goals that's where we'll be in a much more.

8:57

Well, clarity will be provided but the reality is I'm much happier now than

9:02

I was probably say six months ago. So at this stage we're sitting back waiting to see what unfolds.

9:08

It's a good early sign and it's positive but look, that doesn't mean that there's

9:12

any guarantee of anything but we are much better off with this task force recognising

9:17

our activities than one that doesn't. Thanks for that update, Sean.

9:21

Across the Bass Strait there's been an election down in Tasmania you.

9:24

Can you give us a recap on that situation, please? There was an early election

9:29

held by the local Liberal government there, literally just over the last few days,

9:34

with the results slowly trickling through after all the preferences and what have been finalised.

9:40

It looks like the Liberals are unable to create a government on their own,

9:45

and they'll then form one with supply guaranteed, effectively,

9:50

from the Jackie Lambie network. Work the 14 liberal seats three jackie

9:55

lambies brings them to 17 technically they need

9:58

18 there's three independents now that

10:01

they'll start to talk to because they'll effectively need one of them and that

10:05

looks like that'll probably be what the government yeah consists of or at least

10:10

the minority government moving forward for the next few years down in tassie

10:13

so at this stage do you Do you foresee any changes in relation to hunting down in Tasmania?

10:21

I wouldn't say that there would be off the cuff. Prior to the election,

10:25

through a lot of ongoing advocacy work with ADA and our local representative there, Mr.

10:30

Scott Freeman, we got a pretty good sense of engagement from the government.

10:35

And also now, prior to the election, we got a good set of commitments about

10:39

working together on the advisory committees and implementing the wild deer strategy.

10:44

There were good signs there and effectively that there wasn't a desire for change

10:49

from the current set of circumstances.

10:51

There is a wild deer strategy there that runs out until 2027 that we worked hard to get up.

10:57

And that was actually quite widely accepted by virtually all stakeholders.

11:01

The devil in the detail is always how those strategies and policies then get

11:06

implemented. mentored. So it looks like providing accountability to be a part of implementing that

11:11

strategy will be where the cut and thrust is moving forward there.

11:15

So it's not too bad of a position at the moment.

11:18

Now that we've covered the three subjects for today, it's time to wrap it up.

11:23

Thanks for your time today, Sean, and we'll catch up next month.

11:26

You're welcome. Thank you very much, Paul. See you all soon. same the roar on the australian deer podcast brought to you

11:36

by the australian deer association proudly in partnership.

11:40

Music.