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"Victoria deserves a Minister for the Environment. At the moment, is does not have one," said the secretary of the Dingo CARE Network, Dr Healy.

"As things stand, John Thwaites (Victorian Minister for the Environment) is tailoring environmental policy to suit the self-serving demands of the farming lobby without adequately identifying the needs of the environment in the first place," Dr Healy said.

Dingo found in remote western New South Wales

"The recent decision to resume aerial baiting on public land reflects this compromised approach to caring for the environment and appears to rely upon poor scientific practice in justification." To date, the Victorian Government has refused to make public the 'preliminary' scientific report, which it used to justify the resumption of aerial baiting.

Dr Healy said, "Under John Thwaites, the Victorian Labor Government has had an appalling record of protecting remnant dingo populations. Even though the dingo is facing extinction, and is now listed by the United Nations as a threatened species, the Minister refuses to declassify the dingo as vermin and have the iconic animal placed under appropriate conservation legislation. The Minister for the Environment is simply helping drive the dingo to extinction in Victoria."

Dr Healy asks this question: "Is it sheer arrogance or ignorance on the Minister's part to resume aerial baiting when the best scientific research to date shows the dingo to be a keystone species in Australian eco-systems, which plays a pivotal role in the preservation of vulnerable small marsupial populations against the predation of foxes and wild cats?"

More info
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~dingo/welcome.htm

Biologist call for reintroduction of dingoes
Chris Johnson, James Cook University

Chris Johnson's book, "Australia's mammal extinctions - a 50,000 year history" looks at the need to reintroduce dingoes across mainland Australia to prevent extinction of the threatened species.

"Australia needs more dingoes if it is to stave off the threat of extinction to its native fauna," said Johnson in the book. Since the time of white settlement, Australia has accounted for almost 50 per cent of the entire globe's mammal extinctions.

"Poison baiting and exclusion from fenced reserves have only limited potential for success. On the other hand, dingoes could be used as a very powerful tool to protect mammal species from cats and foxes. Australia needs more dingoes to protect our biodiversity."

In his book, Johnson shows that habitat loss or climate changes are really only secondary issues in mammal extinctions. He believes that "had foxes and cats never been brought to Australia, none of the recent mammal extinctions except the thylacine and possibly the toolache wallaby would have happened."

"We cannot bring back what we've already lost, but we must now urgently deal with the threat from cats and foxes, which prevents recovery of rare species and could cause more extinctions in the future," said Johnson.

In areas where dingoes are still abundant, foxes and feral cats are a rarity, and biodiversity is much higher. Dingoes compete with foxes and cats for food, and have also been demonstrated to deliberately prey on both. They are also known to kill the invaders' young in their nests.

But dingoes were largely removed from the food chain across large swathes of Australia not long after the arrival of white settlers, with huge bounties paid on dingo scalps.

Reintroducing not just dingoes, but also Tasmanian devils and quolls to the mainland food chains they once sat at the top of is the best thing we could do to restore the natural balance these alien intruders have destroyed.

While livestock farmers may have concerns about Johnson's proposal, he also noted "dingoes are exceptionally able predators of both kangaroos and feral pigs, and would undoubtedly have a stabilizing effect on populations of both in areas where they cause serious problems for farmers".

More info

'Australia's Mammal Extinction: A 50,000 Year History' is available direct from the publisher at
www.cambridge.org/aus/

ISBN 0-5216-8660-1 $49.95

If you order via the website, enter the promotional code "ECL06" at checkout stage to receive a 25 per cent discount. This offer is available until the end of December.

"Australia's mammal extinctions - a 50,000 year history" by Chris Johnson
Why have so many Australian mammals become extinct? Johnson explores some of the most controversial aspects of Australia's environmental history in the last 50 000 years. He provides the most complete evaluation on the extinctions of Australia's megafauna, concluding that the cause was hunting, not climate change or habitat disruption by fire.

See Issue 37 of EcoVoice for an excerpt from "Australia's mammal extinctions - a 50,000 year history"