Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is incongruous that we have in Canberra a government so quick to ban the live sheep export trade yet sanction, through its New South Wales counterpart, the cruel slaughter of beautiful brumbies so close to the national capital.

I'm pleased that the environment minister is here—I hear her interjecting—because anything you can do, Minister, to stop this, would be very much appreciated by the many supporters of those brumbies. Shooting these horses from helicopters under the guise of environmentalism is as callous as it is unnecessary. In some cases, horses have been shot as many as—wait for it—17 times and left to bleed out. In some cases, mares with foals afoot have been shot. The foals are left to starve, and the mares have been left to die a cruel and slow death. It is so unnecessary.

Jason Lewis of Ungarie has ridden up in the Snowy before, commenting, 'I'm sure the pigs and deer are doing way more damage than the horses, from what we can see.' Patrick Byrnes of Wagga Wagga comments: 'Shooting an animal up to 17 times, even in the mouth, and letting foals starve—those right from the bottom to the top must take responsibility for their inhumane actions and be prosecuted for animal cruelty. This includes the RSPCA.' Patrick Leary of Coolamon talks about the descendants of our amazing warhorses, the waler. Maria Flinn of Ladysmith says they are 'part of our Australian country history and heritage'. Then we have Linda Pocock of Wagga Wagga saying: 'Animal cruelty—this is so sad. They should be protected. Deer and pigs will be doing more damage than the brumbies.' Georgina Gorman is very supportive of efforts being made as well.

A flyer handed out at the rally in front of Parliament House this week talked about the brumbies fighting for our freedom in World War I and how, now, we fight for their freedom. I can see you laughing, Minister, but this is a serious topic for so many.

Well, the damage being done is being exaggerated, and the numbers of brumbies in the Mount Kosciuszko National Park are way exaggerated. They're using these exaggerated numbers as an excuse to shoot, out of helicopters, thousands of horses. The same people who are saying this is a good thing are then down at Flemington, standing out the front on Melbourne Cup Day—the first Tuesday in November—and saying, 'How cruel is this—horses running around a track.' You just cannot make this stuff up.

As the flyer said, there has not been a scientific environmental impact study done at Kosciuszko National Park to demonstrate how brumbies impact endangered species. That's what it says. Indeed, we've got the RSPCA, who checked a farm at Downside at Wagga Wagga twice and made no attempt to say that anything was wrong even though there were hundreds of horse bones piled up there. The police investigations continue.