Wild Dogs

Ms BATH (Eastern Victoria) (12:11): (1726) My question is to the Minister for Agriculture. Bendoc farmer Eddie Sellers has seen a spate of wild dog attacks on his eight-month-old lambs, with 23 lambs being viciously attacked and killed in the past two weeks. Eddie’s farm borders a state forest, and it is out of these areas that these mixed wild breeds go and hunt. He acknowledges the vital work that the local dog trappers do to mitigate stock losses and indeed impact on native species and calls for trapping to be continued, but he specifically raises the importance of continued use of 1080 bait to eradicate wild dogs. Like my constituent, The Nationals oppose any suggested phase-out of legal 1080 baiting, so I call on the minister: will he commit to the continued use of 1080 used according to prescribed standards so that these wild dogs can stop that shocking destruction of stock and wild animals as well?