Goats first arrived in Australia with the First Fleet in 1788 and soon became feral as domestic goats escaped, were abandoned or were deliberately released. They now occur across 28% of Australia with at least 2.6M feral goats in Australia. You can see herds of feral goats in most pastoral areas of WA.
Greens Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region, Robin Chapple MLC, welcomes the Government’s Land Administration Act reforms but says the devil is in the details.
“I believe it is a good thing we are looking at the constraints of the Land Administration Act, but I will remain wary of the details” Mr Chapple said.
“As it stands, pastoralists can only use their land for stock related purposes. We have always advocated for them to have the ability to diversify and the reforms propose this.”
“However we need to govern to ensure that this diversification has a net positive effect on the land condition.”
“The act should ensure potential new tourism ventures on pastoral lands operate in an environmentally friendly way and comply with the Native Title Act.”
“It should also be outlined who has the responsibility with dealing with feral animal infestations, we are continuing to have problems with feral goats degrading many areas in my Region.”
“I will be reviewing the reforms to ensure they are fair and extensive.”
For comment please contact Robin Chapple on 0409 379 263.
