Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Public Security and Policing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to present a petition recently approved by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Petitions, regarding wandering trad, with my constituent Mr Todd Coleman being the principal petitioner.

The petition read as follows—

To the Honourable The Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives

We, the undersigned citizens of Australia wish to draw the attention of the House to the Rudd Governments decision to cut funding for the eradication of the noxious weed, wandering Trad in the Dandenong Ranges. This noxious weed has a devastating effect on native flora and fauna nationwide.

We therefore ask the House to:

• Restore the $450,000 in funding promised by the previous Government
• Implement an Australian wide strategy to combat Wandering Trad

from 136 citizens

Petition received.

I very much thank Todd Coleman and all those people who signed the petition. Wandering trad is a South American weed which is sadly throughout the Dandenong Ranges, mainly in the creeks. Wandering trad pretty much sucks up all the water in the creeks. Residents would know that their pets sometimes go out and get some sort of rash. Wandering trad is the No. 1 cause of rashes for pets in the Dandenong Ranges.

This weed is also in the electorate of the Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett, in the suburb of Randwick. The previous government, with the then environment minister, Malcolm Turnbull, made a commitment of $450,000 to find a biological control. This would help not only the Dandenong Ranges tackle this problem but would help right across the country. The most disgraceful thing happened. This announcement was made before the election campaign and, after the election, Minister Garrett cut the funding. That is an absolute disgrace. The Gillard government should be absolutely shamed and condemned on this decision.

The application was put together by Dr Andrew Sheppard of the CSIRO, and he was going to work on this for a period of three years with a PhD student from the University of Melbourne. The effort had gone into this. The research had gone into this. More importantly, the commitment had been made. This Rudd-Gillard government has no interest in protecting the environment in the Dandenong Ranges. During the last election, we made a $3 million commitment for weed management in the Dandenong Ranges. Sadly, although Minister Peter Garrett promised to do something, the only thing he has done is cut the funding already budgeted for wandering trad. This is an absolute disgrace, and the government should immediately reverse this decision.