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Fed & Victorian Government

There is a lot of enabling legislation but little gets used because the paperwork is not done. Can we make reporting even easier so people want to do it?

  • Federal law
    • -  EPBC Act - https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/epbc One of the features of this act is that it is designed to protect, among other things, listed threatened species, ecological communities, and migratory species (protected under international agreements). As the indigenous flora and fauna of the Bellarine include many threatened species, even many that are no longer present there, the EPBC act is relevant to the controlling of rabbit populations. But, as always, governemnt does not manage masses of paperwork that leads nowhere so perhaps it is time this act was re-interpreted specifically for the protective role that is threatened by rabbits? 
    • Any offers to work on this?
  • State laws
    • - FFG Act (https://www.environment.vic.gov.au/conserving-threatened-species/threatened-species-overview) In particular, this act assumes native plants and animals have 'an intrinsic right to exist, thrive and flourish' and so what is in focus is invasive plants and animals and habitat loss and fragmentation. Clearly 'uncontrolled rabbit populations' are therefore in focus. So this is what they work on:
      • revegetation on public and private land,
      • connecting habitat with corridors
      • surveying and controlling invasive species like foxes and Northern Pacific Seastars
      • restoring environmental flows
      • creating ‘insurance populations’ of threatened species, preserving plants in seed banks and rearing animals in safety for future release into the wild (captive breeding).
    • Of these things, what is relevant to the Rabbit Sweep?
    • One thing that might help would be collaboration between landholders and the government - so often only the landholder adjacent to the public land has a problem with it - if there was a clear form of cooperation between the private and public landholders, a lot more could be achieved.
    • Corridors can be problematic - is the latest grant encouraging the landholder to build corridors or just to plant if they get a grant? The corridors should be clear on maps and the gaps should be identified and in focus, perhaps? Clearly the governement has the power, under the act, to survey the situation - does it do this? Does it need help? How could it be done more thoroughly and effectively?
    • Can we have an indigenous species protectorate on the Bellarine so people can see what is being protected?
    • There is a govt grant for carers of wild animals etc and a small grant due in midSeptember but is only available to registered carers etc and it takes 6 weeks for the application to be processed - so, for next year?  See https://www.wildlife.vic.gov.au/grants/wildlife-rehabilitator-grants
    • CALP Act (https://agriculture.vic.gov.au/biosecurity/protecting-victoria/legislation-policy-and-permits/invasive-species-laws-and-the-catchment-and-land-protection-act-1994https://content.legislation.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-04/94-52aa072-authorised.pdf) The CALP Act is relevant because one of the purposes is to provide for the 'control of noxious weeds and pest animals'.
    • Cl 20(f) says a landowner must take all reasonable steps to 'provide for the control of noxious weeds and pest animals'.
    • Cl 21 (1A) says the Secretary (who is this?) must take all reasonable steps to control restricted pest animals on any land in the State.
    • Cl 22A (1) says (1) "The Minister may declare a municipal district to be a district for which a roadside weed and pest animal management plan must be prepared." Has this been done for the Bellarine?
    • Check out cl 38 (4) - a land management notice may apply to land owned by different land owners only if it deals solely with the control of noxious weeds or pest animals or both. Does this mean a cluster of landowners could be served a notice? Penalty for non-compliance is 240 penalty units????
    • See Cl 47A Notice of declaration of priority area(1) "The Minister may, by notice, declare an area of land to be a priority area for the control or eradication of any regionally prohibited weed, regionally controlled weed or established pest animal specified in the declaration."
    • Cl 58 (1B) an animal can be declared to be "a prohibited pest animal, controlled pest animal, regulated pest animal or an established pest animal". Declarations are limited and have to be state-wide. At best, rabbits could be "established pest animals".
    • See Division 3—Importing, keeping,trading in and releasing of pest animals.

Possibilities for the future

  • Rate relief and other incentives for rabbit work...
  • govt cannot handle lots of paper work so can we organise data for them?
  • What about the land the governments manage:
    • Parks Vic,
    • CMA's
    • Vicrail
    • Vicroads
    • regional roads
  • What is 'capacity building' in this context?
  • QR codes to register as a responsible landowner

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