Push to cull crocs to level of "acceptable risk" for swimmers

FNQ waterways

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Katter’s Australian Party state MP Shane Knuth has told a parliamentary committee crocodile numbers must be reduced to a point where there is an “acceptable risk” for swimmers.

Crocodile numbers must be reduced to a point where there is an “acceptable risk” you will not be taken by a croc if you choose to swim in a Far North Queensland waterway, a public briefing has heard.

Katter’s Australian Party state MP Shane Knuth told the parliamentary committee briefing he had discussed the plan with a tourism operator from the Port Douglas/Cairns region.

Mr Knuth told the meeting - held last week on the final day before submissions closed for people to have their say on proposed new laws to allow for the culling and hunting of crocodiles - the operator said that in the 1990s tourists were instructed they could swim, but “it’s a risk”.

“Now it’s come to a point where, if tourists come to her and people say ‘can we swim in the water?’, she will say ‘you will die’,” Mr Knuth told the committee.

“We want to get it back to the point where there’s always going to be a risk, but we want it to be an acceptable risk.”

Under the current policy - where problem crocodiles are removed from waterways as a last resort - if your boat accidentally sinks in FNQ, “you’re likely going to die”, he said.

But those who oppose culling and hunting of Queensland’s crocodiles, such as Daintree River tour operator David White, argue that reducing crocodile numbers will still not make waterways safe to swim in.

“These animals are perfectly adapted ambush hunters, and unless we kill them all, then we will increase complacency but not safety,” Mr White stated last week.

“This has been shown in a peer-reviewed scientific paper released last year and all scientists agree.”

Mr Knuth also told the briefing he wanted to allow participating Indigenous communities to open up their lands to a “quota of high-end clients” so they can hunt crocodiles - a practice that takes place in other parts of the world such as Africa.

And he also wanted the current five-year trial period of harvesting 5000 croc eggs for hatching at sanctuaries to be extended to as many as 90,000 eggs per year.

A further public hearing is now planned for Wednesday, May 21, in Brisbane, before a parliamentary committee hands down a report on Friday, July 25, on whether or not to introduce changes to crocodile laws as outlined in the draft Crocodile Conservation and Control Bill.

Once the committee’s report has been tabled in July, the State Government will have three months to respond to any recommendations made.

This is the fifth time Mr Knuth has tried to have this type of bill pass through the Queensland parliament since 2017.

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