Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have some further information in relation to a question asked of me yesterday by Senator Bob Brown on the planned cull of kangaroos. The following information has been provided to me by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Whether the kangaroos are translocated or culled is a matter for the ACT government and the Department of Defence. I am advised that Defence will cull the population using tranquilliser darts and lethal injection in a process overseen by the RSPCA. I am advised that the ACT government received expert advice that there would be unacceptable animal welfare consequences involved with the live capture, transport and subsequent release of the kangaroos into a different environment.

The eastern grey kangaroo is not a listed threatened species under the EPBC Act and so part 13 of that act does not apply. Therefore, the federal Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts has no jurisdiction to intervene regarding the method of removal of the kangaroos in question. It has been determined by the Department of Defence that the cull is unlikely to have a significant adverse impact on the environment and therefore a referral is not required. The fact that the proposed cull will be undertaken by a Commonwealth agency on Commonwealth land does not automatically require referral under the EPBC Act.

The impacts of the current overpopulation of kangaroos at Belconnen include a lack of grass cover, leading to erosion, and an increase in weed infestations. The area in question is natural temperate grassland on the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales and the ACT and is listed under the EPBC Act as an endangered ecological community. These grasslands support threatened species, including the grassland earless dragon, striped legless lizard and golden sun moth. Kangaroo overpopulation will also have serious implications for the welfare of the kangaroos themselves. If nature is left to take its course, many kangaroos may suffer a slow death by starvation. Maintaining a sustainable population of kangaroos on the site is important for the ongoing protection of the listed threatened grassland community and species on the site.

Senator Brown also sought a guarantee that the grasslands in question are to be reserved and their environmental values protected. The grasslands, as I have said, are a listed ecological community already protected by the EPBC Act. Defence has a responsibility to protect the grassland ecological community and species listed under that act. Maintaining a sustainable population of eastern grey kangaroos on the site is, therefore, a key environmental management responsibility of the Department of Defence. Accordingly, and as I alluded to yesterday, this is not a matter over which the federal Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts has authority; it is ultimately a matter for the ACT government and the Department of Defence.