Kangaroo control
Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (12:41): (1444) My question is to the Minister for Environment. Minister, your government’s own 2025 kangaroo harvesting program annual report says that the total take of eastern grey kangaroos through commercial harvesting and authority-to-control-wildlife approvals was 12.4 per cent of the estimated population. This is despite the government’s own recommended maximum of 10 per cent of the population. The reported total of animals taken exceeded the 10 per cent in every harvest zone, while western grey kangaroo approvals in Loddon Mallee reached 17 per cent. The report admits that even after the government withheld the commercial quota late in the year, it could not keep the reported total within its own recommended limit. Minister, if your government cannot keep kangaroo killing within its own supposedly conservative safeguard, why is the commercial harvest program continuing in 2026?
Katherine COPSEY: If your government, Minister, cannot keep kangaroo killing within its own supposedly conservative safeguard, why is the commercial harvesting program continuing in 2026?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Minister for Energy and Resources, Minister for Environment, Minister for Climate Action, Minister for the State Electricity Commission) (12:42): I thank Ms Copsey for her question, and they are important issues that she has raised. But I would say that we manage kangaroo harvesting under a plan that aims to protect kangaroo populations while making sure that the animals are treated humanely. Regular surveys and monitoring are carried out to track kangaroo numbers. The information is used to decide how many kangaroos can be harvested each year. Harvest limits can be changed when needed to help keep kangaroo populations healthy and sustainable in the long term. People involved in harvesting must follow strict rules to ensure it is carried out in a sustainable and humane way. There has been experience in the past where kangaroo harvesting exclusion zones were expanded to remove additional local government areas based on factors such as urban growth and low-harvest areas, so there is always different data and information that comes in before these decisions are made. In relation to the numbers each year and the changes there, I do not have any of that information at hand, but I am happy to have another look at it based on the specifics of your question.
Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (12:43): Thank you, Minister. Minister, the same report reveals that commercial shooters reported 22,136 dependent young joeys euthanised in 2025 as a consequence, as collateral damage from the commercial harvest. Extraordinarily, the government says that those dependent young are not counted when determining the commercial quota because the population surveys that you have referred to do not count them. The Greens have long called for an end to the commercial killing of kangaroos. This should not be done for profit. Last year I asked your predecessor to commission an independent review of both the population estimation methods and the animal welfare outcomes that you have just referred to, and I do not think either of those reviews have been done. Given the government’s reported take exceeded its own recommended limit and we saw more than 22,000 dependent joeys excluded from the quota calculation, will you suspend the commercial harvest and commission that independent review before setting the 2027 quota?