Crocodile Hunter's dad fires up over culling proposal
Bob Irwin took aim at proposed Queensland laws that would result in crocodiles found in populated sites being killed or relocated.
Katter's Australian Party put forward the bill under a long-running campaign to enhance crocodile control laws, claiming numbers had "exploded" in the state's north.
Queensland's Liberal National government said it would consider the findings of a parliamentary hearing into the bill and decide whether it was "fit for purpose".
Mr Irwin says killing or removing crocodiles is not the answer.
"Culling crocodiles is a pointless exercise, absolutely pointless," he told the hearing on Wednesday
The Katter party renewed calls for crocodile control after a failed bid under the former Labor government.
The bill would allow crocodile culls and safari-style hunting trips, amid claims more than 1200 crocodiles had been spotted in 2023 compared to 126 in 2010.
Mr Irwin said if a large crocodile that protected a territory was removed or killed, a "juvenile delinquent" moved in and took over.
"You're never going to be able to say to the general public you can swim in that river now, because you won't ever know that there are crocodiles still there," he told the hearing.
Mr Irwin helped found Australia Zoo where his son grew up and developed a passion for wildlife, later becoming the world famous Crocodile Hunter before the livewire conservationist's tragic 2006 death.
His daughter-in-law Terri Irwin had earlier echoed his concerns in a submission to the committee, saying the proposed laws would increase the likelihood of croc attacks due to a false sense of security in culled areas.
The Queensland environment department's deputy director general said education was paramount in preventing crocodile attacks, not culling.
"No amount of crocodile removal can guarantee the absence of crocodiles in a waterway, nor can it assure that an area is completely safe to swim," Ben Klaassen told the committee on Wednesday.
Some community members threw their support behind the bill, with one group suggesting Aboriginal people should assist crocodile culls.
Murrandoo Yanner won a landmark 1999 High Court case that ruled Aboriginal people could hunt crocodiles.
He said Aboriginal people in Queensland's Gulf Country were hunting crocodiles and maintaining the population, so there was "no greater group" to aid a pilot culling program.
"We hunt and eat them, but we're not in that camp that we just want to totally cull them," the Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation stakeholder officer told the committee.
"But we also know they're of great cultural significance, and they're in good numbers here, so we manage them very well."
Recent estimates reveal there are around 20,000 to 30,000 crocodiles across northern Queensland.
Mr Yanner hoped to work with the state government, advising how to cull crocodiles without eradicating the species.
Two councils in the state's north, Mareeba and Whitsundays, also want the bill become a reality, saying there was a risk to residents and tourists.
Mareeba Shire Council deputy mayor Lenore Wyatt said dozens of saltwater crocs in eastern waterways were not native after some escaped from a nearby farm in the 1990s.
The area is already zoned to allow the removal of crocodiles, but the council wanted a faster process, saying a farmer had a reptile in his dam for more than six months.
The committee report is due in August.
The father of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin has hit out at calls for the large reptiles to be culled in popular waterways, describing it as pointless.
Bob Irwin took aim at proposed Queensland laws that would result in crocodiles found in populated sites being killed or relocated.
Katter's Australian Party put forward the bill under a long-running campaign to enhance crocodile control laws, claiming numbers had "exploded" in the state's north.
Queensland's Liberal National government said it would consider the findings of a parliamentary hearing into the bill and decide whether it was "fit for purpose".
Mr Irwin says killing or removing crocodiles is not the answer.
"Culling crocodiles is a pointless exercise, absolutely pointless," he told the hearing on Wednesday
The Katter party renewed calls for crocodile control after a failed bid under the former Labor government.
The bill would allow crocodile culls and safari-style hunting trips, amid claims more than 1200 crocodiles had been spotted in 2023 compared to 126 in 2010.
Mr Irwin said if a large crocodile that protected a territory was removed or killed, a "juvenile delinquent" moved in and took over.
"You're never going to be able to say to the general public you can swim in that river now, because you won't ever know that there are crocodiles still there," he told the hearing.
Mr Irwin helped found Australia Zoo where his son grew up and developed a passion for wildlife, later becoming the world famous Crocodile Hunter before the livewire conservationist's tragic 2006 death.
His daughter-in-law Terri Irwin had earlier echoed his concerns in a submission to the committee, saying the proposed laws would increase the likelihood of croc attacks due to a false sense of security in culled areas.
The Queensland environment department's deputy director general said education was paramount in preventing crocodile attacks, not culling.
"No amount of crocodile removal can guarantee the absence of crocodiles in a waterway, nor can it assure that an area is completely safe to swim," Ben Klaassen told the committee on Wednesday.
Some community members threw their support behind the bill, with one group suggesting Aboriginal people should assist crocodile culls.
Murrandoo Yanner won a landmark 1999 High Court case that ruled Aboriginal people could hunt crocodiles.
He said Aboriginal people in Queensland's Gulf Country were hunting crocodiles and maintaining the population, so there was "no greater group" to aid a pilot culling program.
"We hunt and eat them, but we're not in that camp that we just want to totally cull them," the Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation stakeholder officer told the committee.
"But we also know they're of great cultural significance, and they're in good numbers here, so we manage them very well."
Recent estimates reveal there are around 20,000 to 30,000 crocodiles across northern Queensland.
Mr Yanner hoped to work with the state government, advising how to cull crocodiles without eradicating the species.
Two councils in the state's north, Mareeba and Whitsundays, also want the bill become a reality, saying there was a risk to residents and tourists.
Mareeba Shire Council deputy mayor Lenore Wyatt said dozens of saltwater crocs in eastern waterways were not native after some escaped from a nearby farm in the 1990s.
The area is already zoned to allow the removal of crocodiles, but the council wanted a faster process, saying a farmer had a reptile in his dam for more than six months.
The committee report is due in August.
The father of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin has hit out at calls for the large reptiles to be culled in popular waterways, describing it as pointless.
Bob Irwin took aim at proposed Queensland laws that would result in crocodiles found in populated sites being killed or relocated.
Katter's Australian Party put forward the bill under a long-running campaign to enhance crocodile control laws, claiming numbers had "exploded" in the state's north.
Queensland's Liberal National government said it would consider the findings of a parliamentary hearing into the bill and decide whether it was "fit for purpose".
Mr Irwin says killing or removing crocodiles is not the answer.
"Culling crocodiles is a pointless exercise, absolutely pointless," he told the hearing on Wednesday
The Katter party renewed calls for crocodile control after a failed bid under the former Labor government.
The bill would allow crocodile culls and safari-style hunting trips, amid claims more than 1200 crocodiles had been spotted in 2023 compared to 126 in 2010.
Mr Irwin said if a large crocodile that protected a territory was removed or killed, a "juvenile delinquent" moved in and took over.
"You're never going to be able to say to the general public you can swim in that river now, because you won't ever know that there are crocodiles still there," he told the hearing.
Mr Irwin helped found Australia Zoo where his son grew up and developed a passion for wildlife, later becoming the world famous Crocodile Hunter before the livewire conservationist's tragic 2006 death.
His daughter-in-law Terri Irwin had earlier echoed his concerns in a submission to the committee, saying the proposed laws would increase the likelihood of croc attacks due to a false sense of security in culled areas.
The Queensland environment department's deputy director general said education was paramount in preventing crocodile attacks, not culling.
"No amount of crocodile removal can guarantee the absence of crocodiles in a waterway, nor can it assure that an area is completely safe to swim," Ben Klaassen told the committee on Wednesday.
Some community members threw their support behind the bill, with one group suggesting Aboriginal people should assist crocodile culls.
Murrandoo Yanner won a landmark 1999 High Court case that ruled Aboriginal people could hunt crocodiles.
He said Aboriginal people in Queensland's Gulf Country were hunting crocodiles and maintaining the population, so there was "no greater group" to aid a pilot culling program.
"We hunt and eat them, but we're not in that camp that we just want to totally cull them," the Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation stakeholder officer told the committee.
"But we also know they're of great cultural significance, and they're in good numbers here, so we manage them very well."
Recent estimates reveal there are around 20,000 to 30,000 crocodiles across northern Queensland.
Mr Yanner hoped to work with the state government, advising how to cull crocodiles without eradicating the species.
Two councils in the state's north, Mareeba and Whitsundays, also want the bill become a reality, saying there was a risk to residents and tourists.
Mareeba Shire Council deputy mayor Lenore Wyatt said dozens of saltwater crocs in eastern waterways were not native after some escaped from a nearby farm in the 1990s.
The area is already zoned to allow the removal of crocodiles, but the council wanted a faster process, saying a farmer had a reptile in his dam for more than six months.
The committee report is due in August.
The father of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin has hit out at calls for the large reptiles to be culled in popular waterways, describing it as pointless.
Bob Irwin took aim at proposed Queensland laws that would result in crocodiles found in populated sites being killed or relocated.
Katter's Australian Party put forward the bill under a long-running campaign to enhance crocodile control laws, claiming numbers had "exploded" in the state's north.
Queensland's Liberal National government said it would consider the findings of a parliamentary hearing into the bill and decide whether it was "fit for purpose".
Mr Irwin says killing or removing crocodiles is not the answer.
"Culling crocodiles is a pointless exercise, absolutely pointless," he told the hearing on Wednesday
The Katter party renewed calls for crocodile control after a failed bid under the former Labor government.
The bill would allow crocodile culls and safari-style hunting trips, amid claims more than 1200 crocodiles had been spotted in 2023 compared to 126 in 2010.
Mr Irwin said if a large crocodile that protected a territory was removed or killed, a "juvenile delinquent" moved in and took over.
"You're never going to be able to say to the general public you can swim in that river now, because you won't ever know that there are crocodiles still there," he told the hearing.
Mr Irwin helped found Australia Zoo where his son grew up and developed a passion for wildlife, later becoming the world famous Crocodile Hunter before the livewire conservationist's tragic 2006 death.
His daughter-in-law Terri Irwin had earlier echoed his concerns in a submission to the committee, saying the proposed laws would increase the likelihood of croc attacks due to a false sense of security in culled areas.
The Queensland environment department's deputy director general said education was paramount in preventing crocodile attacks, not culling.
"No amount of crocodile removal can guarantee the absence of crocodiles in a waterway, nor can it assure that an area is completely safe to swim," Ben Klaassen told the committee on Wednesday.
Some community members threw their support behind the bill, with one group suggesting Aboriginal people should assist crocodile culls.
Murrandoo Yanner won a landmark 1999 High Court case that ruled Aboriginal people could hunt crocodiles.
He said Aboriginal people in Queensland's Gulf Country were hunting crocodiles and maintaining the population, so there was "no greater group" to aid a pilot culling program.
"We hunt and eat them, but we're not in that camp that we just want to totally cull them," the Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation stakeholder officer told the committee.
"But we also know they're of great cultural significance, and they're in good numbers here, so we manage them very well."
Recent estimates reveal there are around 20,000 to 30,000 crocodiles across northern Queensland.
Mr Yanner hoped to work with the state government, advising how to cull crocodiles without eradicating the species.
Two councils in the state's north, Mareeba and Whitsundays, also want the bill become a reality, saying there was a risk to residents and tourists.
Mareeba Shire Council deputy mayor Lenore Wyatt said dozens of saltwater crocs in eastern waterways were not native after some escaped from a nearby farm in the 1990s.
The area is already zoned to allow the removal of crocodiles, but the council wanted a faster process, saying a farmer had a reptile in his dam for more than six months.
The committee report is due in August.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
28 minutes ago
- ABC News
What does lifting trade restrictions on US beef mean for Australia?
It might not be on our plates or menus just yet, but US beef has been a hot topic of conversation across the nation after this week's decision to lift import restrictions that had been in place for more than two decades. Australia banned beef imports from the US in 2003 after the fatal neurological disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, was discovered in American cattle. The blanket ban was lifted in 2019, however restrictions remained on beef that was sourced from Canada or Mexico and slaughtered in the US, amid concerns it could carry the disease. "The Americans were unwilling to … do the traceability work to make sure that beef that was coming to Australia wasn't actually rebranded from somewhere else," veterinarian and former NSW Farmers Association president, James Jackson, said. "We don't want foot and mouth disease in this country, we don't want our consumers to eat beef and get Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is the disease you get from eating cattle with mad cow disease." While some in the industry were optimistic that lifting the restrictions would open up trade opportunities for Australian producers, others raised concerns that Australia's biosecurity could be compromised. The federal government said the move was the result of a decade-long biosecurity review that found more robust movement controls had been introduced in the US. "The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is satisfied the strengthened control measures put in place by the US effectively manage biosecurity risks," Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said. "The Albanese Labor government will never compromise on biosecurity." Nationals leader David Littleproud questioned the timing of the decision, saying it looked as though it was a trade to appease US President Donald Trump. The biosecurity restrictions on beef imports from the United States were one of the key grievances that led the Trump administration to impose tariffs on Australia. Red Meat Advisory Council chair John McKillop said while the decision may have been pushed through "slightly quicker" than expected, he was confident it was the result of a long-running assessment. Global AgriTrends analyst Simon Quilty said the risk of US beef imports introducing diseases to Australia was now much lower. "They have improved their traceability methods within America and I think, in all honesty, that the degree of risk is significantly low," he said. Mr McKillop said any risk would also be mitigated by the limited amount of beef Australia was likely to import from the US. "They have the lowest beef herd in 70 years in the US at the moment [due to drought]," he said. "The most [beef] that was ever brought in, and this was pre-BSE … was 210 tonnes … in contrast to the 395,000 tonnes we exported to the US last year." Mr McKillop said the US was also experiencing near-record beef and cattle prices, and it was unlikely Australians would want to pay high prices for their product. While the amount of beef coming into Australia from the US may be limited, Mr Jackson said there could be a market for it. "There may be some lines [of product] come into Australia, people who want to sell American beef on a restaurant menu or something like that," he said. Mr Jackson said Australia must be open to accepting American beef if it wanted to maintain a trade relationship with the US. "Part of a trade deal is that you're willing to take product from other countries," he said. "Are we happy with Australian consumers eating American beef? Well, probably we're not that happy, but the reality is that if you trade, you've got to be happy to take other people's product as well." The trade restriction on US beef has been a key grievance for the Trump administration, which placed a 10 per cent tariff on all Australian imports earlier this year. Professor Ben Lyons, from the University of Southern Queensland's Rural Economies Centre of Excellence, said it was difficult to know how the move would impact that tariff. "Nothing would surprise us at the moment because that's the new paradigm under the Trump administration — full of surprises," he said. Dr Lyons said he was confident the Australian beef industry would maintain a strong export market, regardless of US-imposed tariffs. "If past performance is the best indicator of the future, we always seem to find a way with our export markets," he said. "Even the announcement of this tariff on Australian beef at the beginning of the year hasn't really had any economic impact as yet on our exports. "I think we should just carry on calmly and do what we do best. I don't really see this as being a long-term issue for Australian agriculture."
Sky News AU
3 hours ago
- Sky News AU
Shadow Foreign Minister makes fiery speech to Penny Wong in Senate
Tensions have flared in the Senate as Shadow Foreign Minister Michaelia Cash unleashed at her Labor counterpart over debate about the Welcome to Country in parliament. Ms Cash staunchly defended her colleague Senator Jacinta Price's views on the matter after Penny Wong took aim at the indigenous leader. The outburst came after several senators expressed their views on the Welcome to Country.
SBS Australia
3 hours ago
- SBS Australia
Morning News Bulletin 25 July 2025
In this bulletin; Thailand launches airstrikes after deadly border clash with Cambodia kills 11 civilians; US and Israel withdraw delegations from ceasefire talks in Qatar; And in sport, Wrestling icon and pop culture giant, Hulk Hogan, dies aged 71. At least 11 civilians have been killed after artillery attacks from both sides, prompting Thailand to send an F-16 fighter jet to bomb targets in Cambodia. Both sides blame each other for starting the clash on Thursday morning, which quickly escalated from small arms fire to heavy shelling in at least six locations along a frontier where sovereignty has been disputed for more than a century. Cambodia's foreign ministry described Thailand's deployment of six F-16 fighter jets against a Cambodian military target, as reckless and brutal military aggression, while Thailand's military says the use of air power was to strike with precision. A spokesperson for Thailand's Internal Security Command Centre says they have attempted to evacuate civilians in affected areas. "The Thai side has evacuated civilians from affected areas for safety, however there have been three serious injuries including a five-year-old boy and one death reported in a community in Surin province." It's the worst fighting between the countries in 13 years, and followed Thailand's decisoin to recall its ambassador to Phnom Penh and expel Cambodia's envoy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his government remains committed to securing a new deal with Hamas to release hostages, but warned the militant group not to misread this as a sign of weakness. Mr Netanyahu spoke at a memorial for Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky, regarded as the ideological forefather of Israel's right wing. 'We are working to get another deal to release our hostages. But if Hamas perceives our willingness to reach a deal as a weakness, as an opportunity to dictate lines of defeat that will endanger Israel, it is greatly mistaken.' His remarks came as US envoy Steve Witkoff announced that the American team was withdrawing from ceasefire talks in Qatar, citing Hamas's latest response as evidence of a lack of genuine interest in a truce. Israel has also recalled its own delegation. The Albanese government has proposed new legislation to enshrine penalty rates for award workers when they work late nights, early hours, weekends and public holidays. About one in seven Australian workers will have their penalty rates increased and their employers will not be able to reduce them, under the proposed changes. Labor has introduced the bill to the lower house and, if it is passed, award workers will earn a base weekend penalty rate of about $40 an hour. While rates can vary depending on an employee's specific award or agreement, common pay rates for workers on a Sunday are double time or time and a half. Siang Lu has won this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award for his comical novel, Ghost Cities. The 39-year-old author from Brisbane says he was shocked to win the 60,000 dollar prize, and couldn't even speak after first finding out the news. It's the first time he's even made the six-person shortlist for the prize. Ghost Cities was finished in 2015, but was rejected more than 200 times by both Australian and foreign publishers. Hulk Hogan, the wrestling legend who turned the sport into a global phenomenon, has died at 71 after suffering cardiac arrest in Clearwater, Florida. Born Terry Bollea, Hogan became the face of the World Wrestling Federation in the 1980s, headlining the first WrestleMania and helping launch wrestling into the mainstream. He won six World Wrestling Entertainment [[W-W-E]] championships and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005. Beyond the ring, he appeared in Rocky Three, starred in reality TV, and drew controversy with his legal battles and political endorsements. Speaking in 2009, Hogan reflected on his struggles: "I don't think many people knew what was going on in my life. And if I can pull the nose up on this monster after everything I've been through, I just wanted to let everyone know, don't give up - stay positive, life is beautiful. Things are going to be good." WWE says it extends its condolences to Hogan's family, friends, and fans.
