TasFarmers Matters - End the state's deer delusion

WE often hear urgent calls to protect our native flora and fauna from invasive species.

But one call continues to go unanswered: the need to address the fallow deer crisis now ravaging the Tasmanian landscape.

Tasmanian farmers are on the front lines, hosting and feeding an invasive species that, paradoxically, enjoys partial protection under state legislation, largely for the benefit of a shrinking constituency.

Many farmers are also hunters, and we continue to support their rights.

But it’s now clear that, for the greater good and as custodians of the land who bear the majority of the cost, we must unite around a common goal, the effective control of deer.

We cannot maintain the status quo as the population isn’t confined geographically or by small numbers.

The rural community can no longer support the economic benefits of minor commercial operators or outsiders engaging in trophy hunting.

We’ve all heard the stories of carcasses left to rot, deer shot, taken illegally and opportunistically, reduced to nothing more than a trophy.

This is not the ethic of the farmer-hunter.

Worse still, our outdated laws prohibit the processing and sale of deer meat, compounding the waste.

This is a missed opportunity.

Small commercial operations stand to benefit from scaling up to process wild meat are currently held back.

It’s time to reject the zero-sum narrative pushed by a few and open the market to broader competition, allowing for greater opportunities to utilise this resource.

We must not squander this precious, highly sought-after protein source.

Reforming outdated, restrictive laws would allow deer meat to feed those in need, support households battling the cost-of-living crisis, and feature on the menus of our finest restaurants.

These laws, long outdated, now serve only the smallest and loudest minority.

That same minority now poses the greatest risk to the state’s productivity and biosecurity.

The government has just invested heavily over the past 18 months and invested significant taxpayer funds into rolling out electronic identification tags for livestock, a move to manage potential outbreaks like foot and mouth disease.

Yet there are potentially more than 150,000 deer roaming freely across national parks, state-owned land and private farms.

Deer move across long distances, jump fences at will, and pose a clear risk as disease vectors.

What is the government doing to manage the risk of uncontrolled spread of any outbreak posed by untagged deer capable of moving across the rural landscape?

We need leadership from the next Tasmanian government; whoever that is will need to act swiftly once elected with coordinated legislation and policy to halt this alien invasion and reduce the deer population significantly.

Our economy, our environment, and our future demand no less.