E&OE….
Topics: Canned hunting, Intergenerational Report, Four Corners programme, higher education reforms
MARK PARTON:
Greg Hunt is the Federal Environment Minister and he joins us on a regular basis. He’s on the line right now to talk lions, believe it or not. G’day Greg.
GREG HUNT:
Good morning Mark.
MARK PARTON:
Talk to me.
GREG HUNT:
So what happened last week is that I banned the importation of lion skins and products into Australia from Africa. This was to end the practice, or for Australia to help end the practice of what’s called canned hunting.
Canned hunting is where lions are raised, in many cases by unwitting volunteers specifically for the purpose of having them in an enclosed area, often drugged, and then to be shot. It can be done in a way which is cruel and inhumane. More than 80% of the lions and lion products that are imported into Australia, on the advice I have, come from this canned hunting and frankly it’s a 19th Century practice in the 21st Century and we banned it.
MARK PARTON:
Greg, it’s positive that we’ve gone down that track, but was it actually happening?
GREG HUNT:
No, it’s a reality, there’s no question. There are videos, there is well documented evidence. I know the South African Government has tried to take steps to end the practice and it’s very clear that it continues to occur and so Australia has taken this step. It is an act of international leadership and it’s been applauded around the world. It’s not about legitimate domestic hunting as some would be concerned.
It’s very specifically about an iconic species which is recognised as vulnerable, which has being treated inhumanely and frankly, in public life we have a defined period and in my time, this is one of the things that I wanted to achieve and it’s something that I’m passionate about.
MARK PARTON:
Really? So how long has it been on your list of ‘this is stuff that I want to do’?
GREG HUNT:
Look, it came to my attention from one of our backbenchers, Jason Wood. Jason brought me the evidence and the videos and I met with people. I then asked my Department to examine it because I thought it was very important to get all the facts, to do due diligence. I raised it with one of the South African Ministers when I met with them, who indicated that they were hoping to have it cracked down upon but in reality it was still occurring.
And so as I gathered information I just thought, look, if you get a chance in public life to take a stand on something such as this, in the same way that we’ve tripled the penalties for the poaching of dugongs and turtles, then this is something you can do on your watch and you think a lot about this as a parent.
You think, what’s the world you want to leave your children and your grandchildren and I just think the idea of raising, rearing, drugging, baiting and then shooting what are effectively little more than caged lions is just not something that should be occurring.
MARK PARTON:
Yeah. Did you watch Q&A last night?
GREG HUNT:
I didn’t, I apologise. No.
MARK PARTON:
Because Joey was on, the Treasurer, of course, and isn’t it funny with a show like Q&A it – two people can watch the same show and come up with a completely different summary as to what happened. But the Fairfax press is suggesting that Joe was upstaged and shirt-fronted on Q&A last night. But I guess if you didn’t see it, you can’t really comment.
GREG HUNT:
Look, I didn’t see it but it sounds like somebody’s wishful interpretation. I do know this – that we don’t normally talk about the Party Room but Joe performs very well there. His presentation of the Intergenerational Report was the most compelling and the best I have ever seen him present in the last decade because it was a sense of the deep facts about we can put our children and our grandchildren on a fronting and a footing which will give them the chance to be right at the forefront of the world in terms of economic and living and quality of life conditions.
Or we can head down the Greek path, the path of debt which affects their quality of life and the way he presented it and the passion, knowledge of the facts and the policy choices was compelling. So I can only go off what I’ve seen directly.
MARK PARTON:
So within the party he’s got more supporters that say Peta Credlin, based on the reports this morning?
GREG HUNT:
Oh look, again I think this idea of commenting on staff is inappropriate because they don’t get a right of reply and I’m, I think, a little surprised at Four Corners doing this…
MARK PARTON:
It’s an interesting point you make about right of reply…
GREG HUNT:
It doesn’t give them a right of reply…
MARK PARTON:
…because it’s not as if she can stand up and respond because if indeed, she did, she’d be criticised for responding, wouldn’t she?
GREG HUNT:
Well I think that that’s absolutely right and I don’t feel right or comfortable about discussing staff members, other than to say that the person in question really is an incredibly capable and decent person and I am disappointed that a programme would run a comment like they did, or as they did, and they do it in a way knowing there can’t be a right of reply. I think we can all be a little bit better than that.
MARK PARTON:
Education Minister Christopher Pyne – he says he’s never going to give up trying to overhaul the higher education…
GREG HUNT:
He won’t ever give up, I can guarantee that! You need to know Christopher.
MARK PARTON:
But, will he fail?
GREG HUNT:
In the end I think he’ll succeed.
MARK PARTON:
It’s possible he’ll fail though, isn’t it?
GREG HUNT:
Look, there are never any guarantees for any of us but the best guarantee of success is indefatigable purpose and that’s defining Christopher. He has a sense of purpose and there’s a reason why and that is when you look at the great, successful universities of the world, when you look at the already outstanding Australian universities, if you give them the opportunity to operate with greater freedom, then that has been a marked element of the most globally successful universities.
MARK PARTON:
Alright. Thanks for coming on this morning, Greg.
GREG HUNT:
Always a pleasure. Cheers.
(ENDS)