Two species of Kangaroo are currently killed for commercial gain in Victoria, the Eastern Grey Kangaroo and the Western Grey Kangaroo.

After weeks of delay in publishing its quarter one report which provides the data for how many Kangaroos were killed for  commercial gain in the period, the Victorian Government finally published the six page report on 26 June 2025.  This delay coincided with the announcement that the Victorian Government would provide a subsidy to kill even more Kangaroos. The state’s Premier claiming:

"We know that Kangaroos are coming in and putting some extra pressure on pastures. We've got to do it humanely, we've got to look at how it can be done through non-lethal control mechanisms, but it's got to be done.” Jacinta Allan

“The difference now is that the gloves are really off, we are back to the 1850s with bounties and subsidies to kill yet more Kangaroos, when the Kangaroo killers can’t fill, and all too often by a very long way, the quotas they already have. The bounties and subsidies are just a way of breathing a little more life into a collapsing commercial activity where ‘products’ are increasingly few and far between”. Peter Hylands

Of course the quarter one 2025 report shows that the commercial quota for the period was not met by a very long way. So a lot of huff and puff from the politicians and media for absolutely no purpose other than to extract even more money from an irresponsible state government to kill even more Australian wildlife.

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Here is what the report tells us

• The commercial quota for Kangaroos in Victoria for Q1 – 2025 was 37,950. The actual take for the period was 18,311, that is just 48 per cent of the quota for the period.
• There were 93 active shooters (out of 133 currently licensed in Victoria) with allocation to operate across more than one shooting zone in the period (there are now five shooting zones in the state following recent amalgamations). As a rough estimate the value per shooter was $4,920. No wonder they need a subsidy.
• 117 Western Grey Kangaroos were killed in the period for commercial gain and this species is now threatened by complete eradication in the state and should be immediately removed from the commercial list in Victoria.
• 6,309 female Kangaroos were killed for commercial gain in the period and as a result 5,364 dependent young were either beaten to death, decapitated or left to die of starvation or predation.

By shooting zone this is what happened in the period:

• Gippsland – quota 4,500 / actual 1,851
• Hume – quota 14,000 / actual 4,779
• Loddon-Mallee – quota 9,000 / actual 4,865
• Grampians – quota 6,950 / actual 4,399
• Barwon South West – quota 3,500 / actual 2,417

Largest shortfall against quota in the period, the actual take at just 34 percent of quota was in the Hume shooting zone. This is a zone where agitation from politicians and the media to kill even more Kangaroos and more easily seems hollow at best.