Authenticity of droppings and carcasses used as evidence for Tasmanian government-funded fox hunt was questioned

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A $40m Tasmanian fox eradication scheme that failed to find a single live fox has been cleared of misconduct over allegations droppings were planted to falsify the animal’s existence and secure funding.

Independent upper house MP Ivan Dean lodged a complaint with Tasmania’s Integrity Commission last year over two controversial programs that ran from 2002 to 2014.

Dean questioned the authenticity of fox poo and carcasses used as evidence to launch and continue the government-funded fox hunt.

The state’s corruption watchdog on Monday released a 252-page report after a year-long investigation.

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It found there was “no direct evidence” any employees of the state’s eradication programs fabricated or falsified evidence to prove the animal existed.

“While there were administrative and management issues, they were not indicative of misconduct,” it read.

The commission found the eradication scheme was hampered by internal conflicts, and poor scientific testing of droppings raised concerns about the validity of results.

It added there was no motive to fabricate evidence to secure funding. An earlier police investigation ruled out any criminality.

Whether foxes roam freely on the Apple Isle has long been a point of contention.

Four fox carcasses, a skull, two sets of footprints and 61 fox-DNA positive droppings were found from 1998 to 2012, according to the government’s Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment website.

But a live fox was never captured during either of two programs: the Fox Free Taskforce and the Fox Eradication Program.

A spokesman for the department said similar programs and the people working on them would be better managed in the future.