An American social media influencer is facing the prospect of having future visas refused, after capturing a wombat and posing with it for social media, Sky News can reveal.
Sam Jones, a self-described “hunter,” and “environmental scientist”, shared a now-deleted video on social media where she is seen picking up the wombat from the side of a country road at night.
The influencer carries the animal to a car while a male companion laughs and films the incident, and the mother of the baby wombat pursues her, clearly distressed.
Jones eventually lets go of the baby and although it’s not seen in the video she explains in the caption they were reunited.
Sky News can reveal the Department of Immigration is reviewing the terms of Ms Jones’ visa to see whether there are grounds to kick her out of the country.
“The department is now working through the conditions on her current visa and determining whether immigration law has been breached,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told Sky News in a statement.
“Either way, given the level of scrutiny that will happen if she ever applies for a visa again, I’ll be surprised if she even bothers,” he added.
“I can’t wait for Australia to see the back of this individual, I don’t expect she will return”.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles slammed Jones as a “complete idiot” after being questioned about the matter on Thursday morning.
“I’ve seen the vision, and hat she is a dill, and people who come here on visas shouldn’t be idiots, and clearly that’s what she has been,” Mr Marles told 3AW.
“You don’t need any degrees in wildlife management to understand that this put the wildlife in apposition of stress.”
“Questions about being deported, this whole legal process to go through being charge, convicted, all that sort of stuff will play out, or it won’t, but that’s a subject or a matter for other authorities.”
Shadow finance minister Jane Hume described the incident as “heartbreaking”.
“I can’t believe this silly, silly woman would do something so stupid, so irresponsible,” she said.
“She’s a dill … she doesn’t deserve to be able to be here but whether we could deport her, that’s another question. The court processes alone would take longer than her visa would last.”
Foreign Minister Penny Wong, in an interview with Sunrise, slammed Jones’ actions as “dreadful” and said the animal should have been left alone.
However, she said the matter of deportation should be left to Immigration Minister Tony Burke.
“I’m just going to leave it to him. But I think everyone who would have seen that would have thought, look leave the baby wombat alone, leave it with its mum,” Senator Wong said.
Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell has demanded authorities take action on Jones and her companion in the video for breaching the Wildlife Act.
“It’s certainly not the behaviour of someone who respects and values native animals,” she told ABC Radio.
“We want action on this, we want outcomes, we want them to face the repercussions because this is a breach of the Wildlife Act no matter what state you’re ibn, that’s really clear.”
Ms Purcell said she has reported the incident to Crime Stoppers but it’s important to find out where and when it happened.
