We go round in another circle to end up where we started. Let’s pull the motion, moved by Scott Barrett from the New South Wales Parliament Upper House, apart (Legislative Council Hansard – 23 October 2024).

Claim 1: Changes to Australian landscapes following European settlement have generally favoured Kangaroo populations, where people have removed predators, created permanent water sources, and altered vegetation, and these changes, and the natural boom and bust cycle of Kangaroo populations, can lead to Kangaroo populations exceeding sustainable levels in some locations.

Response: Kangaroo population estimates and hence quotas in New South Wales are far too high. European settlement has not favoured Kangaroos in New South Wales or anywhere else. The status of species in this family Australia wide (includes a small number of species from New Guinea) the last time we looked was:

• Extinct: 7;
• Critically endangered:7;
• Endangered: 10; and
• Threatened: 28.

As climate change bites, what has become increasingly evident is that Australia has a species listing lag. What we can say is that given the attitudes towards Macropod species so clearly described by politicians in New South Wales, Macropods species would not be listed unless there was a big problem. So of the species remaining off the listings there are numerous regional extinctions (for example Victoria has lost 7 species in this family since settlement) many are also in trouble.

The claim about water sources is dubious at best, a very strong argument for much of New South Wales is that fresh water sources available to wildlife have been severely damaged, polluted or restricted, including by agriculture, development and climate change.

The state of the landscapes in Western New South Wales and the destruction of vegetation and hence Kangaroo habitat can only be described as a disgrace. Native animals replaced by hard hoofed animals from somewhere else, adding further to the decline of native plants and animals.

Predators have not been removed, Kangaroos in New South Wales are killed in far greater numbers and at industrial and mechanised scale by humans for commercial gain and ‘harm reduction. In 2018 the New South Wales Government issued 5,912 harms permits to lethally control 887,993 Kangaroos, this was additional to the commercial quota in that year in New South Wales of 2,253,914 with an additional special quota of 216,042. The actual commercial take of Kangaroos in the state in 2018 was 593,796, just 26 per cent of the quota. The Kangaroos do NOT exist in the numbers claimed.

Foxes and cats roam these landscapes. They are baited by 1080 poison using Kangaroo meat as a vector, these baits are dropped from helicopters. The Foxes kill yet more young joeys.

These two shooting zones in New South Wales were discussed in detail during the Inquiry. These examples are likely typical of the current circumstances for Kangaroos in other shooting zones in New South Wales and describe the high rates of unsustainable killing in 2018 and 2019 in particular. For the Grey Kangaroos in the Tibooburra shooting zone, the government’s population estimate for 2016 for this species in this zone was 451,594, by 2020 the population estimate had fallen to 6,859 (the quota for that year in that zone for that species was 6,782, theoretically  leaving just 77 Grey Kangaroos in the whole and sizeable shooting zone by year end).

For the Red Kangaroo in the Cobar shooting zone the population estimate in 2016 was 437,129, by 2020 the population estimate was 102,480.

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The shocking outcome to the inquiry

While the New South Wales Government should be commended for establishing the inquiry, what occurred in the final instance can only be described as shocking, the significant watering down of the draft report (by politicians from the Labor, Liberal and National Parties), removing critically important recommendations, and the subsequent signing off of the New South Wales Government’s Wildlife Trade Management Plan for the Commercial Harvest of Kangaroos in New South Wales 2022-26 (so criticised by the inquiry).

Environment Minister at that time, Matt Kean, despite what he knew about the utter mess that Kangaroo ‘management’ in New South Wales was in, signed off the management plan, passing it to the Commonwealth Environment Minister, Sussan Ley, who also signed off on the plan on 22 December 2021.

“The Minister has made a decision to approve the NSW Plan with conditions relating to annual reporting on population surveys, harvest quotas, and monitoring and compliance of harvesters with their state licence requirements”.

We all spent so much time on preparing submissions based on solid evidence, only to be completely ignored.

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Dissenting statements

What follows are comments and statements from committee chair, Cate Faehrmann MLC (Green).

• The robustness of the science and population estimates behind setting quotas for how many Kangaroos may be harvested has been called into question through this inquiry. Without independent oversight and greater transparency, we cannot have confidence that the government's Kangaroo management program is not contributing to potentially devastating declines in some Kangaroo populations.
• This inquiry has also heard troubling evidence of inhumane, disrespectful practices that are not acceptable to many in the community, including the treatment of joeys. There are several recommendations that, if acted upon, will increase the transparency around the deaths of joeys that are occurring in both the commercial and non-commercial industries.

In my selection of dissenting statements (removed from final report’s findings and recommendations) the chair says:

• Overall, the committee is concerned that Kangaroo numbers are in serious decline in New South Wales, with mobs becoming marginalised and fragmented across the state's landscape. The committee believes that, notwithstanding the impact of drought on Kangaroo populations, land clearing and licensed killing for agricultural interests and the commercial harvesting industry are major factors in this decline.
• That there is currently no humane method of killing macropods and their joeys for either commercial or non-commercial purposes.
• That, as a matter of urgency, the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment introduce a moratorium on harvesting Wallaroos in the Northern Tablelands and Red Kangaroos in the Western Plains, until new population surveys are conducted. The survey methodology must be independently peer reviewed, and primary data (including photographic evidence) must be made available for public, independent scrutiny.

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Claim 2: Overabundant Kangaroos can negatively affect plant regeneration, habitat structure and ecosystem processes, impacting smaller native animals, and also compete with agricultural industries; where thousands of Kangaroos are hit by vehicles every year and 10 thousand die from thirst and starvation during drought.

Short answer: nonsense. Kangaroos have been functioning in Australia’s ecosystem processes for millions of years. Smaller native animals have been impacted by European settlement and NOT by Kangaroos and globally Australia leads the way in mammal extinctions, particularly small ones. There are close to 2,500 threatened species and biomes in Australia (not including the listing lag) and not one has been caused by Kangaroos. A feature of commercial exploitation of Kangaroos in New South Wales includes a series of extensions to commercial shooting zones, easier access and administration, low levels of compliance checks, killing more females and so on. These changing features prop up the killing and sustain viability.

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Exclusion fencing: A scourge for Australian wildlife

There were terrible scenes on highways like the Gwydir Highway in New South Wales, along which 2.4 meter high exclusion or cluster fences in some places now stretch both sides of the highway. For wildlife and for large numbers of Kangaroos, now excluded from the land on which they once lived, it means life on the road verge where road-trains which are unable to stop, roar by 24 hours a day. The slaughter of wildlife on these roads is catastrophic.

Typically, Kangaroo shooters who are killing Kangaroos for commercial gain do not like cluster or exclusion fencing. This type of fencing allows Australian wildlife (described as competition) to be herded against exclusion fence lines which they cannot cross and these animals are then shot or run down where they are trapped.

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Claim 3: While harvesting these iconic animals can be confronting, it plays a critical role in Kangaroo management in New South Wales, and commercial harvesting supports a multimillion dollar industry, as well as reducing the impacts that large Kangaroo populations have on the environment, agriculture, and on the health and welfare of individual Kangaroos and Kangaroo populations.

Short answer: nonsense. The economics are simple, the gross value of commercial exploitation of Kangaroos in New South Wales in 2024 will be around AUD 15 million (USD 10 million). Remember that Kangaroos are just part of the pet food supply chain in Australia, other species are also processed including horses and farm animal species. This estimate fits neatly within the Australian Government's own data for all Australia. Despite the small scale of the activity as described here, claims from the Hon. Sarah Mitchell during the motion include that:

“The industry for Kangaroo products in Australia is very sophisticated. It employs thousands of people and brings hundreds of millions of dollars into the economy”.

I am going to be generous here, based on the employment generation of an activity of this type, AUD 15 million translates into about 60 FTE equivalent jobs in the state, not thousands. The Government does employ public servants and consultants and academics who continue to advocate that this industry should continue, despite its abhorrent cruelty and damage it does in terms of human harm, spending millions in doing so.

There are activities in a modern economy that you do not want and this is one of them and from a climate change perspective, long distances of travel, use of chiller boxes etc, the carbon cost of this activity has an unacceptably high per dollar value carbon cost and should be banned on that basis alone.

NOTE: See a more detailed explanation of Kangaroo 'economics' at the end of this analysis.

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No increase when killing for commercial gain is introduced? Case study for Victoria

When the commercial exploitation of Kangaroos begins in a new location, (the State of Victoria is an example of a new location comprising 7 new shooting zones), the killing rate increases dramatically and way beyond the need for damage mitigation purposes.

Speaking about Victoria’s Kangaroo Pet Food Trial (KPFT) around the time it commenced in 2014, Peter Walsh, the former Victorian Agriculture Minister stated:

“It will not mean any increase in the wildlife control permits at all, it is just utilising the waste that is there from the current controls".

Labor’s Environment Minister continued to make the same claim.

“The more they kill, the bigger the population grows”. Peter Hylands

In the case of Victoria in the four years prior to the introduction of the trial, 195,136 Kangaroos were targeted (3 species) by the Victorian Government. In the last four years during which time commercial exploitation in Victoria was fully operational (includes 2024) the Victorian Government has targeted 849,750 (this number just the two commercially exploited species). That is an increase of times 4.35, if we were comparing like with like, that number would be higher.

NOTE: Kangaroos breed slowly, increases in population estimates can be at biologically impossible rates. How can this happen and why is there such a resistance to auditing the estimates and increases in population when they are clearly impossible?

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Claim 4: A regulated and evidence-based approach to commercial harvesting provides a population management option that is humane, sustainable and also lessens the need for land managers to use control methods with poorer welfare outcomes.

Response: The international community understands this activity to be the largest and cruellest industrial scale exploitation of land based wildlife in the world. This includes numerous parliaments / legislatures, including in Europe and the US as do many of the world’s leading brands. The often made claim in Australia that it is kinder to kill them is a marketing ploy conceived after other claims about Kangaroos being made to justify the slaughter became so bizarre that even the believers stopped believing that the claims could be true.

Statements about strict compliance surveillance from Australian state governments can be misleading. The claim is always made but is it true?

In New South Wales, government employed compliance officers do not conduct investigations while commercial Kangaroo shooters are shooting Kangaroos for commercial gain as this is deemed too dangerous.

Kangaroo shooters killing Kangaroos for commercial gain are not required and do not advise the New South Wales Government when and where they intend to shoot during their period of licence. Commercial Kangaroo shooters in New South Wales are required to have landholder consent.

During 2023, there were 536 licensed commercial Kangaroo shooters with approximately 2,797 approved landholder consents (some properties may have provided consent to multiple shooters). These properties cover 15.3 million hectares. There were 107 registered premises, 20 licensed animal dealers and 4 licensed skin dealers.

A total of 128 chiller inspections, 10 processing works inspections and one skin dealer inspection were conducted by the New South Wales department during 2023. A further 23 audits of chiller premises and 47 inspections of commercial Kangaroo shooters' vehicles were conducted by NSW Food Authority.

Regional compliance and regulation officers investigate reports of illegal shooting by commercial shooters. In 2023, 32 reports of potential licence breaches and other illegal activity were received, involving commercial licensees or for commercial purposes. On investigation, several were dismissed because no evidence was found to substantiate the report, or the activities were licensed.

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A troubling conclusion

“But I want to be clear: The Government supports a commercial Kangaroo industry. We support a strongly regulated industry and we support it for a number of reasons, not just because of the jobs it supports in regional New South Wales but also because Kangaroo meat—and the export of it—is far more sustainable than that of the hard-hoofed animals that we have across the State. We have an opportunity to deal with that”. The Hon. Penny Sharpe (Minister for Climate Change, Minister for Energy, Minister for the Environment, and Minister for Heritage)

Did I sit through (and take the trouble to submit to) the same New South Wales Government Inquiry just as Penny Sharpe did? Perhaps I was dreaming.

“Every state and federal leader of the Nationals has contacted a US senate committee, while Australian diplomats have also addressed politicians in Washington and Brussels, where a European Union ban is also in train. A group of 30 New South Wales MPs from Labor and the coalition recently stood together to call for Australia to formally encourage US senators to reject the bill”. Independent journalists on the Kangaroo Protection Act

Meanwhile the Australian Government said it supported the international trade of ‘ethically and sustainably’ produced animal products, including meat, skins and hides.

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Recent history of the commercial trade in wildlife (Kangaroos): Economics and sustainability

In 2023 the gross value of the commercial exploitation of Kangaroos in New South Wales was similar to our estimates for 2024. In 2023 there were 536 licenced Kangaroo shooters in the state killing an average of 933 Kangaroos in that year. The average earnings per shooter before costs, which can be high, was approximately AUD 28,000. In practice some licenced shooters are active, others not and some work occasionally. Assuming about 60 FTE jobs, averaged across the licenced shooters in New South Wales this looks like around 4 hours per week of employment. In most cases, except for the most active, the individuals commercially exploitating Kangaroos have other forms of employment. For some at least this is a Friday night activity to boost disposable income.

We should note that the Australian Government, in its published data, gives the gross value of the exploitation of Kangaroos for all Australia at AUD 25,009,820 (Commonwealth Government Gazette for period 2020-21). According to the Australian Government, exports of Kangaroo meat, all Australia, were at AUD 12 million in 2022-2023.

Governments and the Commercial Kangaroo Industry claimed that they could not keep up with increasing demand. This is untrue. Demand for Kangaroo products, including meat has been declining since 2009 following the loss of the Russian Federation market (health related) that constituted 70 per cent of Kangaroo meat exports.

This decline in demand has been extensively documented in NSW Kangaroo Management annual reports 2010 to 2021 and KMAP (NSW) Minutes of Meetings 2010 to 2021. As well, ABS data based on AHECC classifications note significant declines in Kangaroo meat exports between 2014 and 2019. ABS data also confirmed that in 2019-2020, approximately AUD 12.8 million worth of edible Kangaroo meat was exported to 15 countries by four export establishments.

• By its nature and general conduct the commercial trade in Kangaroos has a track record of human rights abuses and significant damage to regional businesses. For example tourism businesses cannot operate without interruption while the Kangaroo shooters are at work;
• Even a cursory investigation of the statistics regarding Kangaroos in Victoria shows clearly that the commercial exploitation of two species of Kangaroo in Victoria (only one species is present in the Central shooting zone) is not sustainable, and as a result does not represent a sustainable business opportunity for shooters;
• The Commonwealth Government gives the gross value of production Australia wide as (delivered to processor) as AUD 25,009,820 (Commonwealth Government Gazette for period 2020-21). Kangaroos are a cheap source of pet food meat; and
• The world does not like this trade in wildlife, because of its blatant cruelty and health issues. There are a growing number of Kangaroo protection acts across the US and European Parliaments and the EU (including numerous politicians including MEPs) are actively trying to stop the trade. Many of the world’s great brands have now banned Kangaroo products from their supply chains.

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Value of exports

According to the Australian Government, exports of Kangaroo meat, all Australia, were at AUD 12 million in 2022-2023.

“Export data can be difficult to fully describe. In the case of Kangaroos and in the last decade or so, the separate data relating to the export of Kangaroos skins has not been accessible (it vanished from public view in 2012-13)”. Peter Hylands

Note the following from the ABS:

“International trade in goods statistics are subject to confidentiality. Where necessary, a “restriction” is placed, at the commodity level, to suppress the level of detail available. Depending on the nature of the restriction, this may be all detail relating to the product (no commodity details), or a suppression of only some variables (e.g. selected country details). Users of the International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia, and other international trade in goods statistics, should use the CCL to determine whether a particular statistic has been subject to confidentiality restrictions (and therefore may not represent the true aggregate value)”.

The latest investigations and questions in the Australian Government’s Senate by Senator Mehreen Faruqi, reveal the following about Australia’s Macropod skin trade between 2019 and September 2022. This information had been confidentialised and was not available to the public. Why?

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The EU is by far the biggest importer of Kangaroo meat. Exports to PNG are of particular concern and the end use of Kangaroo meat products in this market needs detailed investigation. In 2023, PNG paid AUD 4.8 per kilo for Kangaroo meat, while the European Union paid an average of AUD 9.05 per kilo. Why the difference? Is the difference in price due to the quality of meat being exported or is there a market discount for PNG?

Canada, South Korea, Singapore (where the import of Kangaroo meat for human consumption was the only bushmeat allowed) and Japan, also play their role in the terrible persecution of Kangaroo species in Australia.

These countries / regions import Kangaroo meat because they are told by the Australian Government that this bushmeat trade is safe, sustainable and humane. The US is interesting and the figures reflect the general level of concern, going back decades, about the cruelty and sustainability of this trade in bushmeat. We should also not underestimate the love for Kangaroos in the US, and this fascination with this wonderful group of Australian animals continues to grow.

As a rough estimate, the international trade in Kangaroos in 2023 involved (in the range of) 115,000 to 140,000 Australian animals, all snatched for commercial gain from the Australian ecosystems in which they are a keystone species. The international bushmeat trade in Kangaroos accounts for less than 10 per cent of the annual commercial kill, including joeys. The Australian pet food trade is by far the biggest customer for Kangaroo meat.

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Actual take compared to quota

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The table below describes the continual failure to get anywhere near the commercial quota for Kangaroos is a key indicator as to why population estimates and hence quotas are far too high. It is now highly probable that the quota is actually more than the total actual population in a given shooting zone and in some cases. Collapses in population in shooting zones include Victoria’s Mallee shooting zone and the Tibooburra shooting zone in New South Wales, just two examples of several.

As a rough guide for all mainland Australia our calculations show that there is a very high probability that for all mainland Australia, Kangaroo population estimates are 2.5 times greater than they should be. There are significant regional variations. That means the population of commercial species of Kangaroos in commercial shooting zones for 2024 is not as estimated by state governments, 35,334,551, but 14,133,820. This means that for 2024 for all mainland Australia shooting zone Kangaroo populations, the state governments are targeting 35 per cent of the Australian population (plus joeys) just in 2024.

There has been a significant effort, one wonders why, from all state and the Australian governments, to promote and protect the commercial exploitation of Kangaroos. This support translates into significant changes to where the commercial exploiters of Kangaroos can operate, even moving into public lands, including state and national parks. These endless extensions of zones, and which species can be killed for commercial gain, means that we are not comparing like with like. Shockingly from the table below, if we ignore the changes and extensions to zones and the adding of species, the actual take against quota in 2023 and 2024 would fall below one million and in 2023 that represented just 19 per cent of quota.

NOTE: In the table below percentage of actual take increases mainly because the quota is lower in a given year. For example, the 2021 quota for Australia was 1,524,085 lower than the quota in 2020. What was particularly shocking was that for the quota alone, the reduction in the quota between those years was higher than the actual annual take in each year.

NOTE: At this point the 2024 actual take number is our forecast. From what we know from the data available for 2024 the all Australia forecast is more or less on track with New South Wales exceeding our forecast with an actual take against quota of around 33 per cent.

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^{Note: Excludes Tasmania / Excludes joeys}

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