The Biodiversity Council welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the Deer Management Policy Review Discussion Paper (the Discussion Paper).

In 2022, the Tasmanian Government released the Tasmanian Wild Fallow Deer Management Plan 2022-2027 (the Management Plan). The purpose of the Plan is “to set clear goals and management objectives for wild fallow deer in Tasmania over the next five years”.

Since the deer management plan was developed, the deer population has been managed using a mixture of hunting, culling by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania, and the issue of control permits to landholders.

The Tasmanian government has committed to an annual review of the effectiveness of policies and management tools under the Management Plan. The 2025 Review focuses on the Government’s commitments to streamline permits in DMZ1 and make DMZ3 a complete eradication zone, but also occurs in the context of the Tasmanian Government’s commitment to ‘reducing red tape’.

Our concerns about the plan include:

1. Current management approaches are failing to curb the deer population
2. There should be no new deer farms

For more detail, please read our full submission.