The fox furphy

THE general public and the media have been told in the past decade that fox cubs have been imported into Tasmania, reared and then released into the Tasmanian bush.

It is alleged 11 cubs were in one lot and 8 in an earlier attempt. Documents from the government reveal this allegation is just that, an allegation and is baseless.

I understand, this claim all started when a person outside Allgoods in Hobart passed on a rumour to the brother of a PWS employee. Yet this hearsay rumour was used to convince just about every media outlet nationally and some international media and several periodical magazine editors that this was indeed credible.

On 20th June 2001 a special police taskforce, consisting of four police officers and one PWS officer, was established to investigate claims of illegal fox importations. They were given a briefing on the alleged illegal importation of foxes into the state. The allegations were levelled at deer hunters from Perth, Tasmania. A number of people were interviewed. On the 13th July 2001, a Detective Inspector responsible for the Police Taskforce wrote a report on their investigation

In summary, the report makes a number of findings:

1. The original source of the information cannot be corroborated by any material of fact or evidence.

2. There is no evidence available from the inquiry that there has been an illegal importation of foxes by any known group of civilians.

3. That all sightings in the Hadspen/Carrick area are not corroborated by any scientific evidence and can be explained.

4. That … National Parks, has not established that foxes are in Tasmania and nor is there one single piece of evidence to corroborate that assertion.

On the 17th July 2001, a further Police report concluded: “On investigation, it became abundantly clear that the original informant (spoken to by Police) had only passed on part of the information — most of which was hearsay and gossip. The remaining information seems to have come from NPWS personnel who have relied on rumour and probably guesswork. None of the information was confirmed and some was found to be highly suspect.”

And yet a front page article sensationally titled ‘Fox Plot’ appeared in The Mercury on June 5th 2002. In it, the Minister of the day, Mr Llewellyn said that 19 (11 + 8) fox cubs had been imported and released at four different locations in Tasmania.

There is not one ounce of evidence to corroborate this allegation.

In October 2004 a series of questions was asked by Tony Fletcher MLC in the Legislative Council, one question referred the evidence that supported Mr Llewellyn’s claim that up to 19 foxes were imported and released in four different locations in Tasmania. The answer — read into Hansard by Michael Aird in the Legislative Council — was: “in late 2001 three people were identified that had imported 11 fox cubs into Tasmania … a mixture of male and female were selected for breeding purposes”.

I believe Michael Aird was misinformed; there was no evidence to support the laying of charges, none, zero; not then and not now. Regardless of what they may have thought they knew and regardless of the statute of limitations. The attempt to use the statute of limitations to avoid the need to identify a culprit was, in my view, very smug and too convenient.

There is a plethora of inaccurate and misleading statements about foxes in Tasmania. None have been corrected and they continue to re-appear. One cannot blame members of the public for being sceptical.

Let us all be aware that our ports are likely incursion points, (as with the May 1998 and October 2003 fox incidents), let’s stop blaming other people for our own slackness and put the resources into protecting likely entry points. We all do have a duty of care not to ignore evidence, and we must do everything to ensure Tasmania remains fox free.

But we all also have a responsibility to be truthful in dealing with such a serious public issue.