In Victoria, and because it appears the Australian Government have still not approved the Victorian Kangaroo Harvest Management Plan 2024-2028 (it should have been signed off in December 2023) and the Victorian Government has recently released the actual commercial kill data for 2023, a new round of Kangaroo nonsense is being spruiked by journalists and Victorian Government politicians.

As for the recently published data (our estimate for the commercial take of Kangaroos in Victoria in 2023 was 79,000, which was 47 per cent of quota), it turned out that the actual was 72,232, that is 43 per cent of the commercial quota of 166,750.

Of concern was also the heavy use of ATCW permits (non-commercial permits) to kill large numbers of Kangaroos on both private and public lands, in this case permits issued, far exceeding their ATCW quota for 2023.

The two critical issues are the hyper-inflated population estimates on which the quotas are based and that there are too many licensed commercial shooters in Victoria. The combination of these two factors mean the very significant destruction of Kangaroos, far exceeding any kind of ‘sustainable' outcome.

We should note that the Australian Government's blocking of Kangaroo exports from Victoria is likely to have implications for the beneficiaries of the commercial exploitation of Kangaroos in South Australia, where Kangaroo populations are in very deep trouble, while at the same time impacting the Victorian supply chain, including the use of chiller boxes where Kangaroo carcasses are stored.

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So let’s take some time to think about some of the statements being made.

From News Corp Australia’s Weekly Times this week:

“Farmers fear Victoria’s Kangaroo population is exploding in the wake of a flawed quota scheme that grants commercial shooters the bulk of the quota and cuts the number landholders can cull”. Peter Hunt

“The numbers have exploded since the (October 2022) floods, doubling and doubling again each year.”

Let’s look at the statements above, are they correct? Simply, the latter is biologically impossible.

The article Not making a dent: Kangaroo numbers explode in Victoria goes on to claims that the shortfall in the actual kill is a demand side issue, something to do with an export ban (from Victoria) because the Victoria’s Kangaroo Harvest Management Plan had not been approved, and that ‘activists’ had disrupted the commercial take (there is global resistance, including from major corporations in the US and Europe, to this conduct, but it is not a main driver of the shortfall in the kill rate in Victoria).

No Kangaroos is the main driver, you can’t kill what does not exist.

Peter Hunt goes on to write:

“The Weekly Times asked DEECA if it had cut back on the number of Kangaroos landholders could cull using ATCW permits, and if not, had it considered increasing permit allocations to offset the low numbers being shot as part of the commercial harvesting program”.

The answer of course is evident in government published data, the data describes an alarming increase in the number of native Australian animals being targeted and killed in Victoria in 2023 using Authority to control wildlife permits (ATCWs). The ATCW statistics for Victoria in 2023 (all Australian species) are as follows:

For lethal control, 2,482 permits were issued to kill 119,367 native animals covering 57 native species. The number of native animals targeted for lethal control is significantly higher than in 2021 and 2022.

The ‘quota’ for Grey Kangaroos (non-commercial ATCWs) in 2023 was supposed to be 69,600, instead the Victorian Government issued permits to kill 74,450 of these animals. For those animals subject to lethal control 83,056 were Kangaroos or Wallabies. That is 69.5 per cent of all Australian native animals targeted in Victoria. Given the shockingly inaccurate population estimates for Kangaroos in Victoria (hyper-inflated), it is most unlikely that this number of animals was actually killed in 2023.

Our estimates show that the most probable total kill in 2023 was, adjusting the claimed ATCW number of 75,375 downwards to 31,657, gives a total kill figure for Grey Kangaroos in Victoria in 2023 of 103,889. This reduction with even the significant level of killing occurring on public land.

Journalist, Peter Hunt states”

“ARI’s 2022 count of 2.36 million has been used to set an overall 2024 cull quota of 10 per cent of the population – about 236,000, which was split between commercial harvesters (155,650) and landholders seeking ATCW permits (80,700)”.

We need to be clear ‘ARI’ counted 5,947 Eastern and Western Grey Kangaroos in Victoria in 2022.

Along with the ABC, politicians pop up (and never respond when you ask to talk to them to describe the actual circumstances of what is occurring) making claims which they can’t substantiate. Here is an example from Emma Kealy MP:

“The department appears to be destroying Kangaroo culling by stealth”.

The facts are these:

The number of Kangaroos targeted in Victoria since 2010.

• 2010 – 39,559
• 2011 – 34,721
• 2012 – 45,717
• 2013 – 75,139
• 2014 – 84,100
• 2015 – 135,887
• 2016 – 169,544
• 2017 – 189,086
• 2018 – 168,992
• 2019 – 136,502 (Red Kangaroo not added to KHP in Victoria)
• 2020 - 137,800 (Catastrophic fires destroyed wildlife populations and the world donates to help save them)
• 2021 - 191,200 (Victorian Government claims Kangaroo population increase of 41 per cent)
• 2022 - 185,850
• 2023 - 236,350 (plan) - Victorian Government claim yet another significant increase in the population of Eastern and Western Grey Kangaroos, this time 24 per cent). Our estimates show that the most probable total kill in 2023 was, adjusting the claimed ATCW number of 75,375 downwards to 31,657, gives a total kill figure for Grey Kangaroos in Victoria in 2023 of 103,889. This reduction with even the significant level of killing occurring on public land using ATCWs.
• 2024 – 236,350 (plan) – quota based on numbers derived from 2022 population survey which claimed a 24 per cent increase, that on top of a 41 per cent increase claimed from the previous survey.

When Kangaroo mobs are shot at, they try to escape, so the act of shooting at them as they move across the landscape probably creates greater difficulty, they show up on residential streets or are forced in concentration to smaller and smaller areas.

A detailed email sent to assist another rural MP in Victoria, Annabelle Cleeland, to understand the Kangaroo data was also not responded to. Here are some extracts from that email.

“I just wanted to set out some information for you in relation to Kangaroos in Victoria and the use of ATCWs. The Labor Government in Victoria is a very significant destroyer of Australian wildlife in the state, far exceeding the killing rates of any National / Liberal Party Government that went before it in the modern era.

ATCWs are issued on request, the Victorian Government has never been able to provide evidence of any rejections of permit requests for any species, particularly so Macropods  –  if ATCWs are not requested by the general public they are not required.

The following was reported by the Nature Knowledge Channel in relation to Kangaroos in Victoria – actuals for 2023:

“Our estimate for the commercial take of Kangaroos in Victoria in 2023 was 79,000, which was 47 per cent of quota. The actual was 72,232, that is 43 per cent of the commercial quota of 166,750.

Of concern was also the heavy use of ATCW permits (non-commercial permits) to kill large numbers of Kangaroos on public lands, in this case permits issued, far exceeding their ATCW quota for 2023”.

While ATCWs for the 100 or so Australian species subject to control under this Victoria Government do not use a quota system, Grey Kangaroos (both EG and WG) do have a target quota because of the commercial exploitation also occurring. In 2023 that ATCW quota was exceeded for the first time by a significant margin. The Victorian Government does not know the actual number killed when ATCWs are used (the exception public lands).

You should also note that Labor politicians are making misleading statements in the Victorian Parliament regarding the issuing of lethal and non-lethal ATCW permits, claiming that every effort is made to ensure that every option is investigated prior to issuing lethal permits. This is not true and when we do the maths this is what we find:

“The data describes an alarming increase in the number of native Australian animals being killed in Victoria in 2023 using Authority to control wildlife permits (ATCWs). The ATCW statistics for Victoria in 2023 (all Australian species) are as follows. For lethal control, 2,482 permits were issued to kill 119,367 native animals covering 57 native species. The number of native animals targeted for lethal control is significantly higher than in 2021 and 2022.

For the first time in 2021 the Victorian Government provided a split between lethal and non-lethal permits. Just 2.6 per cent of the permits issued were for non-lethal control”.

The Victorian Government, through various mechanisms has been targeting around 1,000,000 native animals per annum, including ATCWs, ‘recreation’, commercial, unprotection and secretive killing (Koalas). We now doubt that these numbers are achieved as the animals no longer exist in the numbers claimed. The inability to meet commercial Kangaroo quotas across Australia (including Victoria) despite shooting zone extensions (which included the State of Victoria), adding new species, improved access and simplification and the coming move into public land in Victoria and South Australia, are a very clear indicator of what is occurring. The standards of governance in these matters is shameful at international scale, we can only hope that these standards do not apply to other areas for which the Victorian Government has responsibility.

It is not difficult, and we are usually very accurate, despite government attempts not to provide the information requested, to do the maths. We have done this for a long time, including visiting many locations across the Australian Continent.

I would be grateful if you could send me any evidence of farmers having ATCW permits for Kangaroos rejected in your electorate of Euroa”.

My message to journalists and politicians alike is simply this, our door is always open and we are happy to work with you and attend locations with you to see what can be done to assist individuals complaining about booming or exploding Kangaroo populations.

Our door is always open.