No one has ever seen a live fox on Tasmania, an island state off the southern coast of Australia. Yet fifty million dollars have been spent over a ten year period to fund the fox eradication program. An occasional dead fox has been found, and fox scat has been noted, but many believe the evidence to be a hoax, planted to continue funding an un-necessary bureaucracy.
“I don’t know if there are foxes in Tasmania or not,” said Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilke. “I don’t know if there’s been misconduct in the task force or not, but I tell you what—there is so much evidence on the table now I suspect we’ve got a real problem.”
Tasmania has long been the only federal Australian state thought not to have an established fox population. Apparently, it appears so important to keep it that way that the fox eradication program has a life of its own, impervious to governmental questioning.
Doubts have been raised as far back as 2011 whether or not the program is a hoax. Wilke met with Federal environment minister Greg Hunt in 2014 to raise his concerns, but Hunt has not responded. Tasmanian MP Ivan Dean asked police to investigate alleged misconduct or fraud within the eradication program, but Police have been unable to lay criminal charges. The Tasmanian Integrity Commission is considering whether to launch an inquiry.
For more details see Dominique Schwartz’s complete article, published by ABC, Australia.
Posted December 16, 2016
