Victoria's Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos has defended a decision to end the killing of dingoes on private land in the state's north-west, despite growing concerns across the border in South Australia.
During a visit to Ballarat on Wednesday, Mr Dimopoulos said any farmer who has a specific need for the ability to kill wildlife, still had the right to seek a permit from the office of the conservation regulator.
"That's available to every farmer right now and the office of the Conservation Regulator assesses that request and will sometimes issue it and sometimes will ask for more information," he said.
"It's not like you can't protect your livestock, you can, and there are instruments in place, so therefore the additional funding provided through [Agriculture Minister Ros Spence's] portfolio is on top of that, the existing pyramid of what's available to farmers," he said.
The decision has been fiercely criticised by farmers throughout the north-west, with a pledge of $550,000 towards the adoption of alternative non-lethal control methods, such as exclusion fencing and guardian animals, largely criticised as not going far enough.
An unprotection order allowing dingoes to be killed without a permit across the rest of Victoria is also up for renewal on October 1.
Mr Dimopoulos said the time between now and then will be spent speaking with farmers, First Nations people, scientists and researchers.
"Because we want to do both things... we all want to make sure that we don't have predation, [we] want to protect livestock, but we also have to protect threatened species, and the dingo is a threatened species," he said.
"Farmers also have some support through Minister Spence... to do work on their property to mitigate any predation."
The decision is also causing a stir across the border with the Tatiara District Council moving a motion at its council meeting on Tuesday to write to SA ministers and cross-border commissioners to express concerns over the decision.
The council includes the SA towns of Bordertown, Keith and parts of the Ngarkat and Billiat Conservation Parks.
Tatiara District Council member and the council's wild dog management committee chair, Cr Richard Halliday said the Victorian wild dog control changes would now put immense pressure on the South Australian dog control system.
"We have a very successful baiting program that keeps the numbers of dogs at a low level in Ngarkat and Billiat Park, but once you cross that border now well there's no there'll be no ongoing control," he said.
"You really have got no first line of defence in regards to control, so, it's important to us because, we're a fairly strong agricultural community here in SA with a lot of livestock potentially at risk."
Cr Halliday also said the changes in Victoria would also undo over 20 years of effective management.
"We've just had an attack on the north-west side of Ngarkat on a property earlier this week... and while it's difficult to have a good understanding of what the numbers are, quite often by the time you start to see dingoes, the numbers are at such a point where they're a challenge to agricultural lands," he said.
"There was a commitment not too far back to rebuild all of our northern dog fence, which was a $25 million project... to stop the dogs coming down from the north.
"Well, we've got a state that's well and truly below that line, turning around and ceasing their control program, so we now have to focus on protecting that south-east corner of SA."
