KAP calls for annual $20 million fund to combat feral pig threat

Katter's Australian Party MPs have launched an appeal to both the Queensland and federal governments for a $20 million annual commitment to go towards a fund to combat the threats posed by an estimated five million-plus wild pigs in North and Far North Queensland.

The call comes as the Queensland Parliament prepares to debate the banning of the yellow phosphorous pig poison known as CSSP.

KAP leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter confirmed he would push for a two-year delay to the ban, as well as demand additional multi-million funding for proactive control methods such as aerial shooting, bounty pig-hunting programs and boar-busting traps.

The party is also lobbying for cost-free access for pig hunters to the state's national parks and protected areas, the geographic footprint of which has grown to 14.2 million hectares.

Commercial feral pig controller Sam Floss agreed that a guaranteed cash flow was needed to deal with the problem but he said just as important was having an effective way of distributing it.

"I see a lot of people have pigs that a local hunter can control, and others who won't do anything without a handout," he said.

At the same time, he said hunters should have their costs at least reimbursed if people expected them to contribute to solving the problem.

Mr Floss is based at Torbanlea in Queensland's Fraser Coast region but has traps using cellular technology all over Australia, including Victoria, Western Australia and in the Gulf.

He said while there was no doubting there were large numbers of feral pigs in northern Australia, he was seeing major problems around regional Queensland cities.

"In places like Rockhampton, you're seeing pigs continually getting hit by cars on roads, and round Hervey Bay the mountains are an issue," he said.

He would like to see on-ground groups that were close to the action, such as Canegrowers and natural resource management groups, plus operators such as himself, be given a major say in how any feral pig eradication fund was allocated.

"People that are on the ground all the time, seeing where the damage is happening and where pigs are most prominent," he said. "For instance, farms that are next to national parks need the most help."

The Cape York Natural Resource Management group has reported a cull of around 1200 feral pigs as part of a project that aims to monitor and reduce the impacts of feral pigs on nesting turtles and wetlands in the region.

Two culls were carried out in November-December 2021 and February-March 2022, before and during turtle nesting seasons, to give participants a measure to see whether nests in the next season have less predation following the culls.

The Eastern Cape York Turtle Protection Partnership was created last year through Cape York NRM, supported by the federal government, and its members include Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Lama Lama, Wuthathi, Rinyirru, Cape Melville and Flinders Howick Islands.

Cape York NRM's Coastal Ecosystems Coordinator David Preece said the benefits of removing the pigs was "significant".

"QPWS has been carrying out feral pig control operations throughout Cape York for many years, but this partnership enhances their work through the extension of the control area and by increasing the understanding and capacity of landholders," he said.

KAP leader Rob Katter said the state government was fooling itself if it thought Queensland's natural environment needed more protection from people than it did from pest species like feral pigs, which prey on native animals, damage natural habitats and cause widespread erosion.

"Targeting a feral pig problem that is worsening by the day is not particularly politically attractive for the inner-city focused governments of Brisbane and Canberra, but it is absolutely crucial from an environmental and biosecurity perspective," Mr Katter said.

The outbreak of foot and mouth and lumpy skin diseases in Indonesia, plus the local risk posed by Japanese encephalitis, had made control efforts more urgent, he said

"Instead of actively seeking to reduce the ability of landholders to deal with feral pigs through the CSSP ban, the state government should be rolling out an emergency plan to get on top of the problem that has been ignored for so long.

"This ill-thought ban couldn't come at a worse time, and will do far more harm than good to Queensland - we need it delayed and a properly funded feral pig management plan set up immediately."

Mr Floss said the ban would not only limit the management options available to people, it would likely have a snowball effect that would lead on to 1080 poison being banned as well.

He said he rarely used CSSP himself but said it had its place.

"Each place is different," he said.

"CSSP doesn't work on the coast - pigs have to be starving to eat it, but out west you can get 100 in one hit with it.

"I promote trapping and shooting but out west that doesn't always work.

"Poison can be a $300 investment in those places versus getting in a chopper that costs $3000."

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