A new Australian Government drought plan

October 1, 2024

Assistant Secretary
Drought Policy Branch
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
CANBERRA ACT via email droughtplan@aff.gov.au

Dear Sir/Madam

RE: Feedback on the Australian Government Drought Plan: consultation draft

I am pleased to provide feedback on the Australian Government’s Drought Plan consultation draft. This feedback is provided in my capacity as National Feral Pig Management Coordinator and my role in leading the implementation of the National Feral Pig Action Plan 2021-2031. My position is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture,
Fisheries and Forestry’s National Feral Pig Management Coordinator Program, and is being delivered by Australian
Pork Limited.

Feral pigs are an established and declared pest in Australian states and territories. Legislatively, all land managers have a shared responsibility to control these animals to reduce their widespread and diverse impacts. In times of drought, feral pigs congregate to permanent sources of water, including man-made infrastructure such as water troughs and dams, reducing both the availability and quality of water accessible to commercial livestock. To fulfil their nutritional requirements during a drought, the predation rates of feral pigs on vulnerable young livestock, such as lambs and calves and crop damage (for those remaining), can be amplified.

Whilst times of drought are the most suitable and opportune time to effectively conduct feral pig management activities, many land managers are overwhelmed by financial pressures, afflicted by mental health strains and/or pre- occupied with managing the health and welfare of any remaining livestock. Funds that may be available for feral pig management are also typically redirected into support of farm enterprises. Drought can therefore be regarded as periods of missed opportunity to both substantially reduce feral pig populations in affected areas and the impacts that they cause as well as bring communities together to address this issue collectively on a landscape-scale, cross tenure basis.

It is recommended that the updated Drought Plan takes into account, and addresses, these issues to enable primary producers and land managers to be more empowered to undertake required management activities to substantially reduce feral pig populations (as well as other vertebrate pests). By having contingencies and strategies in place to address feral pigs and other invasive animals, this will build on drought preparedness and resilience of producers and
Australia’s agricultural industries. Currently, feral animal management is not explicit within the Drought Plan.

It is essential that the management of feral pig populations to reduce their substantive impacts to agriculture and the environment are included in all Pillars of the Drought Plan. It is requested that activities undertaken by producers and land managers to control feral pigs should be included in all three categories of support across the drought cycle namely:
• enabling preparedness and risk management
• providing support during drought
• facilitating recovery.
Below are specific sections within the Drought Plan where the Government can support land managers, farmers and producers and take into account feral pig management and monitoring activities.

Pillar 1- Evidence based decision making

Having tools available for land managers and producers to plan and produce vertebrate pest management plans
(including feral pigs) in their preparedness activities is critical.

Pillar 2- Strategic drought support

Examples where the Australian Government can support land manager and producers in Pillar 2 is highlighted in
“Principles for strategic drought support” where:
a) the government can provide support to encourage preparedness and risk management, b) is specific and targeted to identified needs, and c) where appropriate is locally led and flexible.

The management of feral pigs during drought is very effective, timely and cost-efficient as groups congregate around available water. On-ground management methods, including baiting and trapping, can be highly successful, as can aerial shooting. However, many activities are significantly constrained due to cost and availability of free feed, bait and ammunition (and helicopter operations, in the case of aerial shooting).

In addition, support for farmers and land managers actively involved in feral pig management needs to be accounted for in subsection “Promoting innovation and adoption” through the Drought Resilience, Adoption and Innovation
Hubs.

“Providing support during drought”

This subsection refers to drought packages to support “Our drought response package is always available to
Australians suffering significant financial, mental health and wellbeing impacts.”

The packages should also be available to support land managers impacted by feral pigs (and other vertebrate pests) in the lead up to, during and recovery from drought conditions.

Pillar 3 - Working together

The National Feral Pig Action Plan 2021-2031 (the Plan) is the first national coordinated plan developed to address, and reduce, the significant and widespread impacts caused by feral pigs. It was endorsed by the National Biosecurity
Committee in October 2021. The Plan aims to shift feral pig management to being more coordinated, collaborative, proactive and strategic (rather than short term and reactive) to support land managers to work together. Its purpose is to deliver long-term active suppression of feral pig populations, or eradication (where this is feasible), to reduce their impacts to Australia’s environment, our $72 billion agricultural sector, cultural sites and social assets. These principles are exemplified in Pillar 3.

Pillar 4- Learning and improving

To enable the effective reduction of feral pig populations and their impacts, programs and management needs to be integrated, adaptive and innovative, particularly in times of drought. Understanding the need for this and to include support for these activities, is required in this pillar as we must all “learn from previous responses and improve their approach to preparing for, managing through and recovering from drought”.

Links to other government policy

This section details other areas of government policy in which the Drought Plan is linked.

Whilst the National Feral Deer Action Plan is mentioned, and we understand it is not an exhaustive list of programs the Government contributes to, it would be beneficial to also include the National Feral Pig Action Plan 2021-2031 in the list given the extensive impacts caused by feral pigs.

In summary, it is requested that the Drought Plan more explicitly incorporates feral pig management (and other vertebrate pests) to support the mobilisation of management actions by coordinated groups of land managers during periods of drought.

Yours sincerely

Dr. Heather Channon
National Feral Pig Management Co-ordinator