No federal support as farmers resort to increasingly extreme measures to combat mice
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has ruled out any more federal assistance, as farmers turn to more extreme measures to protect their farms.
Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has rejected calls for the Commonwealth Government to do more to help states combat the horrific mouse plague.
Mice have been overrunning NSW farms since March, with reports of increasing numbers in parts of Queensland, Victoria and South Australia.
Desperate farmers are turning to increasingly extreme measures to kill the rodents as the situation has grown more dire. Video emerged at the weekend of one grower who dropped hundreds of mice from an auger directly into a burning 44-gallon drum, leaving them to incinerate.
Last month, the federal Department of Agriculture conceded it had no national response to the crisis, nor any funding to help farmers pending.
It prompted NSW Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall to urge the Federal Government to “come to the table and help”, saying it was “incredibly disappointing” there was no national plan.
But Mr Littleproud has quashed any hope of federal aid, beyond the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority granting emergency approvals for rodenticides.
“No federal government has had to help a state government before to handle a mouse plague, because states are sovereign governments with their own resources to handle these matters,” he said.
NSW Government is still awaiting APVMA approval to distribute 10,000 litres of bromadiolone, a controversial poison some quarters argue will cause undue harm to native species and pets. Mr Marshall would not weigh in on some of the extreme methods farmers have used to destroy the pests – such as incineration or drowning – but said the NSW Government was “committed to giving farmers the tools they need”.