Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Tollner is a very vigorous advocate for the interests of the Northern Territory as he sees them. As we know on both sides of politics, we can have friendly fire. People can call each other daleks; people can call me whatever they want—it goes with the territory. Senator Conroy and Senator Carr and I have pretty thick hides—not as thick as a crocodile’s, but we can put up with the odd sling and arrow. Mr Tollner has very strong views on this issue. I know that a number of people in the Northern Territory do.

What I did was to maintain existing Australian government policy, which is to give the Northern Territory government a permit to cull crocodiles, using professional park rangers and so forth. They do have a problem with crocodiles because of the very bad management of crocodiles back in the sixties and seventies, with uncontrolled hunting. They have got very serious problems up there and culling is part of the solution. Their proposal was to have amateur people come in. I made a decision that that was not in the best interests of wildlife management in Australia. Many people passionately supported my decision; many others did not.

I am glad to say—although it did not get any coverage—that the Australian Labor Party’s spokesman on the environment assured me that I had the Australian Labor Party’s full support for my decision, and I welcome that. Often you do not get bipartisanship on these things. I believe I made the right decision in the interests of Australia’s wildlife. I am very proud of that decision and I have no plans to review it.