Deadline extended for probe into fox program

AN Integrity Commission investigation into Tasmania’s controversial $40 million fox eradication program has had its deadline extended, the Mercury understands.

It’s believed the investigation will now report on its findings later in the year.

The probe is examining whether public servants in the program fabricated evidence of foxes existing in Tasmania to secure funding.

The Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, which ran the program from 2001 to 2014, has launched its own inquiry.

The investigations were sparked by a Tasmania Police review into a complaint by long-term fox sceptic MLC Ivan Dean who claimed fox evidence had been falsified.

The information gathered by Mr Dean included an unreleased report by a DPIPWE scientist who claimed some of the fox evidence, namely animal faeces, had been hoaxed.

The police review found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing but alerted DPIPWE to possible misconduct by staff.

The emergence of the allegations has also prompted a review of a scientific article that claimed foxes to be widespread in Tasmania, by the journal that published it.

Federal Denison MP Andrew Wilkie wrote to the British Journal Of Applied Ecology asking whether the allegations were cause to review the article. The journal subsequently attached “an expression of concern” to the article, which was based on the fox scats collected in Tasmania and part authored by DPIPWE.

The journal has requested information from DPIPWE but the Mercury understands it has not been forthcoming.

Last month, Mr Wilkie wrote to Primary Resources Minister Jeremy Rockliff asking him to direct DPIPWE to provide the information “as soon as possible”.

A DPIPWE spokesman said that it would advise the journal “if information is established that casts doubt on evidence in the public domain in relation to the former program”.