Native fish, feral cats and Landcare miss out on funding

The Albanese Government has failed to fund native fish recovery, feral cat control and $90 million for 1000 Landcare rangers.

Funding for the Murray Darling Basin Authority’s native fish recovery strategy ends on June 30, with no federal commitment for more money in the 2024-25 budget.

The Albanese Government’s environmental credentials have taken a hit, after failing to fund native fish recovery, a national feral cat abatement plan and deliver $90 million to recruit up to 1000 Landcare rangers.

Fisheries staff and researchers have warned the native fish recovery strategy has been running on “the smell of an oily rag”, with funding coming to an end on June 30.

The Murray Darling Basin Authority, which oversees native fish recovery in the nation’s largest freshwater ecosystem, confirmed “in regard to the 2024-25 federal budget there was no further funding commitment to the Native Fish Recovery Strategy”.

Native fish recovery funding ends on June 30, despite the failure to remove 5000 barriers to fish passage in NSW alone, with researchers warning the federal government’s strategy of “just add water” to the Murray Darling Basin is not enough.

It appears the Basin state and federal governments have been unable to reach agreement on funding the strategy, with the MDBA still trying to finalise the business case.

Meanwhile Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek has deferred a 2022 Budget commitment of $90 million towards employing up to 1000 Landcare rangers.

The commitment was first made in October 2022 as part of the Albanese Government’s first budget, with the promise that funds would begin rolling over five years from 2022–23.

At the time the government said “these rangers will deliver on-ground actions to protect and restore Australia’s environment and heritage and help address labour and skills shortages in the environment sector”.

Yet the 2024-25 budget papers show the government will not deliver any funding to recruiting the extra Landcare rangers until 2027-28, when it will spend just $15m.

Ms Plibersek’s office said “the ranger program will be delivered”, but “Landcare and other organisations facing labour market shortages worked with the Government to adjust the program”.

Ms Plibersek’s September 2023 promise to develop and fund a new action plan as part of “a war on feral cats” has also fallen flat.

At the time Ms Plibersek said “if we don’t act now, our native animals don’t stand a chance”, as cats “kill six million animals every night in Australia”.

But this month’s budget failed to allocate any funding to the plan over the next four years.

Feral cat in Tasmania carrying a native rat. Picture: supplied

Ms Plibersek’s office said it was still working through more than 1600 submissions it received on the draft plan and in the meantime the government was investing “$6.3 million to eradicate feral cats from Christmas Island and Bruny Island, and more than $7 million in 17 on the ground projects through the Saving Native Species program”.

Opposition Environment spokesman Jonno Duniam said “Tanya Plibersek’s time as Environment Minister had been marked by ineptitude, disinterest and delay.

“She talked big game when it came to environmental policy so she could harvest some Greens votes in her inner-Sydney electorate but has failed to deliver any change while country towns have been left in the dust.”

“All we see from this Minister is sky-high rhetoric but no delivery. She supposedly “declared war” on feral cats nearly a year ago but hasn’t taken any practical steps to get this problem under control.”