AWS has been has commissioned to prepare a discussion paper on options for reducing the waste of kangaroos taken under the ACT’s kangaroo management program which has two parts:

1. Conservation culling of kangaroos on public lands and
2. Damage mitigation culling on rural lands in the ACT.

Some people regard any consumptive use of kangaroos as unethical and distasteful; they may also oppose it on cultural grounds. While considering these perspectives, we are mindful that sound evidence-based policy

QUARANTINE ZONES ARE SPLITTING COMMUNITIES NEEDLESSLY.

Quarantine boundaries should be based on communities of interest and economic cohesion rather than State borders.  To enable this to happen, the Commonwealth should accept the responsibility for quarantine that the Australian Constitution says it has. 

Vague authority delegation and ill-defined responsibility leads to events like the Ruby Princess, and incompetent enforcement of hotel quarantine. The New South Wales and Victorian Governments are taking opprobrium for failures which really would be more accurately directed

Improving kangaroo management

The NSW Kangaroo Management Task Force (KMT) is scoping a proposal to the Future Drought Fund (FDF). We are doing so because landholder members of the KMT believe unmanaged kangaroos have brought the onset of the drought forward by six months, have damaged the environment and sustainability of primary production and potentially threaten the social licence of all rangeland pastoral industries.

In order to prevent a recurrence and improve drought resilience,

The Federal Government has announced $50m funding for an Emergency Wildlife and Habitat Recovery Package in response to fires. Conservation-based zoos are expected to play a major role in the recovery challenge with in-house specialist veterinary and husbandry expertise, and critical care facilities such as those at the Taronga Wildlife Hospital.

In some parts of the world, price incentives, proprietorship and devolved responsibility for management, accompanied by effective regulation, have increased wildlife and protected habitats, particularly for iconic and valuable

National collaboration and action is urgently required to reform kangaroo management.

Kangaroo numbers are declining due to drought and millions are starving. This is an animal welfare disaster and an unacceptable national disgrace according to participants at symposiums at the Australian Rangelands Society Conference and at the Ecological Society Conference in 2019. They produced the statement below which was drafted by ecologists and is endorsed by professional societies and organisations.

The situation is also aggravating the impacts of

Corporate Australia was well represented with 75 sponsors among the 600 plus attendees. They included BHP, QANTAS, ANZ, Westpac, Mac Bank, Comm Bank, GHD, EY, Orica, Woodside, Origin Energy, BP, Shell, NAPCO, Aboriginal, and Maori Carbon Funds plus some very big investment houses and banking divisions. One, AllianceBernstein has $1 trillion under management and is looking for good projects . Others

Banning exotic leather in fashion hurts snakes and crocodiles in the long run

We are all familiar with the concept of “fake news”: stories that are factually incorrect,

A video released in Feb 2019 backs calls for current wastage to be minimised and the benefits of sustainable use of kangaroos realised.

With colleagues from interstate, we are appalled at what has been allowed to happen. There has been strong political reaction to media interest in the

An article in Canberra Times describes our paper in Australian Zoologist on the rise of kangaroo populations that then crash during droughts. It presents the case for sustainable population objectives and