Canberra liberals are trying to shore up support for next year's elections by pledging to conduct an independent review of the annual kangaroo cull.
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government said that the policy was a "baffling" political stunt. Officials said that this is because the yearly culls were already independently reviewed. Parts of the nation's capital have some of the highest-density populations of kangaroos in the country.
Canberra Liberals Pledge to Review Kangaroo Culls
Australian rangers have overseen regular culls for more than a decade and said that the animals' overgrazing damages the habitats of a range of endangered animal, insect, and plant species.
In 2023, officials killed off more than 1,000 kangaroos across five ACT nature reserves. In a statement, liberal leader Elizabeth Lee said that if her party wins office next year, they would stop the yearly culls until a review is completed and alternative practices are investigated.
She added that the evidence of the culls' environmental effectiveness was contested. Lee noted that there have been many stakeholders and experts who provided conflicting advice on what needs to be done about the kangaroo population, as per ABC.net.
Lee also cited a CSIRO report from 2014 that was unable to decisively conclude that the ACT's kangaroo population significantly damages biodiversity in the region. She added that many people in Canberra were concerned about whether or not the killings were being carried out humanely.
The suggested independent review of liberals would investigate several issues that Lee said were disputed. These include the methodology for counting kangaroos, alternatives to culls, and the environmental impacts of bushfire-level reduction.
On the other hand, ACT Environment Minister Rebecca Vassarotti said that the opposition's election pledge was confusing. She added that the city's yearly culls were already independently reviewed and that the staff who were involved regularly published peer-reviewed studies about their work.
Vassarotti said that the Australian government's independent reviewer wrote to stakeholders last week and invited them to participate in the review. The minister added that the annual activation of the Eastern Grey Kangaroo Management program is a necessary part of good environmental stewardship, according to City News.
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Controversial Kangaroo Management Program
She noted that the situation is not as simple as putting a hold on all program activities, noting that kangaroo management is the difference between a healthy environment and the destruction of native ecosystems.
The development comes as in June, parks and reserves across Australia's capital were closed to allow shooters to gun down kangaroos. They planned to target 1,402 eastern greys as part of this year's culls.
This year, the program has a funding allocation of $620,000 as authorities claim that 66% of locals support the culls. On the other hand, Jane Robinson from the advocacy group Save Canberra's Kangaroos believes that shooting adults and clubbing joeys is the "nastiest, cheapest" form of animal management.
Last year, the Greens-Labor government allowed the killing of 1,645 kangaroos, including 608 pouch young. Robinson argued that instead of using guns, the government should create better wildlife corridors. She said that this would allow animals to migrate between habitats when they are landlocked by development, said Yahoo News.
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