Katter not keen on ‘ useless’ croc fund

A MULTIMILL I ON- d o l l a r crocodile management fund that promotes public education “spits in the face” of North Queenslanders, say Katter’s Australia Party.

State leader Robbie Katter said the continuation of the Government’s three- year $ 5.8 million enhanced crocodile management, which included $ 919,000 for 2018- 19 allocated in Tuesday’s budget, was a “useless” spend.

“Educating people is a euphemism for telling people not to swim in the watering holes and beaches you’re used to swimming in all your life because of the explosion in croc numbers,” he said.

The Government’s strategy also includes funds for population surveying.

Mr Katter said the Government needed to act on the data collected by the croc population surveys.

“We don’t necessarily object to them collecting data, we object to them not having a management body in there to work with that data immediately and use it,” he said.

But Dan Bamblett, from Hands on Wildlife, welcomed the funding and research.

“One of things with the crocodile issue is we have people that know nothing about crocs shooting from the hip about what should be done,” he said.

“The data we have now well and truly out of date.”

Mr Bamblett said the only way to make a “good decision” about management was by having all the information. is