Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the weekend my son competed in his first rowing regatta in Rockhampton. I was a proud dad. Unfortunately, river rowing and other river activities in Rockhampton have been restricted for the past few months because of a roughly four-metre crocodile that was discovered around Pink Lily Lagoon a couple of months ago, in March. Under the bloody-minded state government rules—and I've since learnt this—a big crocodile can't be removed from where people row, ski and live along the river until a park ranger themselves see it. Despite this crocodile having been seen by multiple people, pictures having been taken and there having been lots of eyewitness reports, it has stayed there for months. Finally on 29 May a park ranger saw it and set a trap. I think it may have been caught now.

This is ridiculous. How can we have a man-eating beast right next to human beings for months without any action being taken? About 200 kids a week in Rockhampton go rowing on the Fitzroy River. This is crazy. In other parts of the state that have A and B zones on their rivers—Cairns and Townsville—crocs are immediately removed, no matter what size they are. During the week I spoke with John Lever, a croc expert—in fact, some claim he is the original Crocodile Dundee—from Yeppoon. He said: 'This is ridiculous. These beasts should be moved away from Rockhampton. They don't need to be there. Queensland is a big state and there are lots of areas for both of us. We shouldn't have crocs next to human habitation. These rules need to be changed.'

I very much thank Dan Healy, the vice-president of the Rockhampton rowing club, for bringing this to my attention. It's something we will be following up, with more community forums in Rockhampton, to make sure that people and crocs can live safely and that our kids especially can undertake healthy recreation activities without putting their lives at risk.