The committee will inquire into and report on:

A) how they are affected by commercial and non-commercial harvesting;

B) the adequacy and enforcement of the National Code of Practise for the Humane shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies for Commercial Purposes and the National Code of Practise for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies for Non-commercial Purposes including methods used and their impact on animal welfare;

C) the sustainability of current harvesting levels and their long term impact on the species;

D) the impact of commercial non-commercial harvesting on the health and well being of animals, permitted wildlife rescues and carers and First Nations peoples;

E) alternative strategies and practises that could be implemented to ensure the humane treatment of conservation of these animals; and

F) any other related matters.

The committee is seeking written submissions and expressions of interest to appear before the committee from interested individuals and organisations by Friday the 18th of April 2025. Written submissions addressing the terms of reference should be addressed to the Parliamentary Officer, Natural Resource Committee and emailed to nrc.assembly@parliament.sa.gov.au or posted to GPO box 572, Adelaide, SA 5001.

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So what is the South Australian Government doing and saying today?

This is currently the South Australian Governments position on the management of Kangaroos. It is the classic echoing of industry talking points and has little to do with the reality of what has occurred.

"As of 1 January 2020, the commercial Kangaroo harvest covers the entire state, excluding Metropolitan Adelaide and the Alinytjara Wilurara region for cultural reasons". Government of South Australia

And just when you may have thought it was not possible to expand commercial operations any further, along comes the South Australian Commercial Kangaroo Management Plan 2025-2029 and into the Adelaide Hills we go and even more planned for public parks and nature reserves.

It appears that the geographic expansions proposed for South Australia for 2025 represent the last remaining opportunity to allow the commercial exploitation of Kangaroos in new areas. The most terrible of which is the full scale expansion into state reserves and national parks. It may be possible to add yet more protected Australian species to the commercial list but we doubt this would be viable.

So South Australia has now achieved what Victoria has achieved, no further opportunity for expansions and no way back from ever declining populations of Kangaroos.

What is particularly shocking is that the commercial exploiters of Kangaroos have been lobbying to access public lands, including state reserves and national parks, for a very long time and that this particular expansion is occurring at a time of extreme climate change and a global extinction crisis, of which Australia is in the very front row.

The kinds of changes that have enabled the commercial exploitation to continue, South Australia currently achieves around  20 per cent of the annual commercial quota for the state, are:

• Adding new species of Macropod to the commercial list;
• Expanding shooting zones, including onto public lands; and
• Improving access through various mechanisms including streamlining of processes.

An earlier and despicable attempt to add the Red-necked Wallaby to the commercial list appears to have failed, comments regarding the Tammar Wallaby are equally disgraceful:

“Red-necked Wallaby was removed from the proposal (2020-2024 South Australian Commercial Kangaroo Management Plan) and will not be included in the commercial harvest. No Tammar Wallabies will be culled from the reintroduced mainland population (until recently thought to be extinct). Clarity was added by including “Tammar Wallaby (M. eugenii) on Kangaroo Island and other islands” under the definition of “Kangaroo” page iv”.

What is particularly shocking is that the commercial exploiters of Kangaroos have been lobbying to access public lands, including state reserves and national parks, for a very long time and that this particular expansion is occurring at a time of extreme climate change and a global extinction crisis, of which Australia is in the very front row.

Actual commercial take (composite all species) over the last 4 years including 2024, has hovered between 16 and 22 per cent depending on how ludicrous the population estimates and quotas were.

The graphs below are from the government's own data. Note how quotas fluctuate, sudden declines a result of significantly lower population estimates, sudden and biologically impossible increases accompanied by campaigns of exploding Kangaroo populations. The exploiters of Kangaroos continue to claim that population explosions (not biologically possible) are just around the corner.

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The four classic talking points

Australian Governments, and the South Australian Government is among the leaders here, and the commercial exploiters of Kangaroos, repeat the same thing over and over again. These statements come from the Government of South Australia Department of Environment and Water's website. My comments are in caps at the end of each talking point. The theory, if you say it often enough, then people will believe it.

1. Kangaroo numbers have increased substantially since European settlement, with some populations now overabundant. NOT CORRECT
2. Many Kangaroos have benefitted from increased access to water, grazing land and the removal of their main predator, the dingo. NOT CORRECT
3. High abundance of Kangaroos are causing adverse impacts on South Australia’s ecosystems, human activities, public safety due to increased traffic accidents and on the welfare of individual animals, in particular during times with dry weather conditions. NOT CORRECT
4. In some circumstances, Kangaroos may need to be managed to protect biodiversity, people and property. Implementing Kangaroo management may protect the welfare of Kangaroos themselves, as Kangaroos may starve due to a lack of food during times of dry weather conditions, or may be injured in car collisions when travelling to find food or water. TALKING POINT SPIN

In the kit bag of Kangaroo nonsense the idea that Kangaroos should be killed just in case they starve, Australia's ABC promote the idea, is a relatively new bit of spin. This newish idea has taken over from 'Kangaroos are diseased and dangerous' - some particularly stupid messaging when you are trying to market and sell Kangaroos for human consumption.

“The arguments made by the scientists in these examples fit a long-standing pattern of values in the field of applied ecology and wildlife management in Australia. The brief is to benefit the agricultural and commercial sector. Perceived wildlife abundance supports calls for lethal management and commercial exploitation. I was reminded again of the koala story”. The excerpt is from 2021 documentary book ‘Injustice, hidden in plain sight the war on Australian nature’ by Maria Taylor.  (Full disclosure: author and journalist Dr Maria Taylor is a member of the AWPC management committee in 2025).

South Australia has been the worst of all Australian states in pursuing remnant Kangaroo populations. The latest proposed changes will allow the commercial exploitation of Kangaroos in nearly all the places where they exist and will enable the commercial exploitation to continue, for just how long is the question?

Not that long is the answer.

“Most shooters will shoot for body size, but it depends on the density of the population. I did some work years ago in the north-west of the South Australian pastoral zone where shooters would shoot anything that moved because the density of the populations were so low and, really, it was almost an uneconomical activity”. Expert witness, Inquiry into the Health and Wellbeing of Kangaroos and other Macropods in New South Wales, hearing transcript 19 August 2021

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Extinct, endangered, vulnerable and rare

South Australia has a shocking colonial record of species endangerment and extinction, including for Macropod species. When I asked why it was, according to its own figures and despite the mass slaughter and sequential climate disaster, that the only family of animals that were increasing in population where Kangaroos, they could not answer my question?

This analysis lists the extinct, endangered, vulnerable and rare species in South Australia. The list I have compiled has more than a 1,000 species on it and it does not include all classes of life.

I record these here so we begin to understand the extent of the problems we face. Those species listed as extinct in South Australia may either now be entirely extinct, that is lost and gone forever, or still survive in other states and territories, small islands and so on, many of these will be on the brink of extinction.

You will see from the lists below, given to me prior to the addition of new species to the commercial list, by the Government of South Australia that what is remarkable is that among the Macropodidae, the Eastern Grey Kangaroo is an example, in the lists, this species is now on the commercial shooting list and not the endangerment watch list. The Red-necked Wallaby has escaped for now. So yet again, anything goes. And neither species has 'boomed' in population.

This, the tip of the iceberg, is what South Australia has done to its mammal species

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South Australia: Extinct Mammals

• Crescent Nail-tailed Wallaby Onychogalea lunata
• Desert Bandicoot Perameles eremiana
• Desert Rat Kangaroo Caloprymnus campestris
• Eastern or Common Hare-wallaby Lagorchestes leporides
• Eastern Quoll Dasyurus viverrinus
• Golden Bandicoot Isoodon auratus
• Gould’s Mouse Pseudomys gouldii
• Greater Stick Nest Rat Leporillus conditor (possible population at Roxby Downs)
• Lesser Bilby Macrotis leucura
• Lesser Stick Nest Rat Leporillus apicalis
• Long-nosed Potoroo Potorous tridactylus
• Long-tailed Hopping Mouse Notomys longicaudatus
• Pale Field Rat Rattus tunneyi
• Pig-footed Bandicoot Chaeropus ecaudatus
• Red-tailed Phascogale Phascogale calura
• Rufous Hare-wallaby Lagorchestes hirsutus
• Shark Bay Mouse Pseudomys fieldi
• Short-tailed Hopping Mouse Notomys amplus
• Squirrel Glider Petaurus norfolcensis
• Rufous-bellied Pademelon Thylogale billardierii
• Tiger Quoll Dasyurus maculatus
• Toolache Wallaby Macropus greyi
• Western Barred Bandicoot Perameles bougainville
• White-footed Rabbit-rat Conilurus albipes
• Brush-tailed Phascogale Phascogale tapoatafa (added 2020)

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South Australia: Unprotected Mammals

• Dingo Canis lupus dingo

Australian mammal species are also subject to hunting / destruction in South Australia by various permits (and many more are killed ‘illegally’). For example species caught up in a commercial trade of wildlife include:

• Red Kangaroo Macropus rufus
• Western Grey Kangaroo Macropus fuliginosus
• Euro Macropus robustus erubescens

For example the commercial quota for the Red Kangaroos in South Australia in 2015 was 327,300 of which 68,908 (not including pouch young) were ‘harvested’. For the Western Grey Kangaroo the quota was 155,400 of which 27,787 were ‘harvested’ and for the Euro the quota was 57,600 of which 9,990 were ‘harvested’. Claims by the media, including the ABC in South Australia, that Kangaroo numbers were exploding are at odds with the number of animals ‘harvested’ in relation to the size of quotas.

In addition to the commercial trade, permits in that year were issued to destroy 1,990 Eastern Grey Kangaroos (listed as rare in South Australia), 7,825 Tammar Wallabies, 2,571 Red Kangaroos, 33,121 Western Grey Kangaroos and 1,875 Euros.

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South Australia: Endangered Mammals

• Feathertail Glider Acrobates pygmaeus
• Agile Antechinus Antechinus agilis
• Swamp Antechinus Antechinus minimus
• Mulgara Dasycercus cristicauda cristicauda
• Western Quoll Dasyurus geoffroii
• Spotted-tailed Quoll Dasyurus maculatus
• Eastern Quoll Dasyurus viverrinus
• Red-tailed Phascogale Phascogale calura
• Kangaroo Island Dunnart Sminthopsis aitkeni
• Rufous Hare-wallaby Lagorchestes hirsutus
• Eastern Hare-wallaby Lagorchestes leporides
• Tammar Wallaby (mainland SA subspecies) Macropus eugenii eugenii (Declassified as separate species – needs investigating)
• Toolache Wallaby Macropus greyi
• Crescent Nailtail Wallaby Onychogalea lunata
• Black-footed Rock-wallaby (MacDonnell Ranges race) Petrogale lateralis
• Tasmanian Pademelon Thylogale billardierii
• Ghost Bat Macroderma gigas
• White-footed Tree-rat Conilurus albipes
• Lesser Stick-nest Rat Leporillus apicalis
• Short-tailed Hopping-mouse Notomys amplus
• Long-tailed Hopping-mouse Notomys longicaudatus
• Shark Bay Mouse Pseudomys fieldi
• Gould's Mouse Pseudomys gouldii
• Heath Rat Pseudomys shortridgei
• Pale Field-rat Rattus tunneyi
• Numbat Myrmecobius fasciatus
• Platypus Ornithorhynchus anatinus
• Subantarctic Fur-seal Arctocephalus tropicalis
• Pig-footed Bandicoot Chaeropus ecaudatus
• Golden Bandicoot Isoodon auratus
• Lesser Bilby Macrotis leucura
• Western Barred Bandicoot Perameles bougainville
• Desert Bandicoot Perameles eremiana
• Eastern Barred Bandicoot Perameles gunnii
• Yellow-bellied Glider Petaurus australis
• Squirrel Glider Petaurus norfolcensis
• Burrowing Bettong Bettongia lesueur
• Brush-tailed Bettong (eastern subspecies) Bettongia penicillata penicillata
• Desert Rat-kangaroo Caloprymnus campestris
• Long-nosed Potoroo Potorous tridactylus
• Little Pied Bat Chalinolobus picatus
• Eastern Falsistrelle Falsistrellust asmaniensis
• Large Bent-wing Bat (southern subspecies) Miniopterus schreibersii bassanii
• Southern Myotis Myotis macropus
• Gould's Long-eared Bat Nyctophilus gouldi

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South Australia: Vulnerable Mammals

• Eastern Pygmy-possum Cercartetus nanus
• Yellow-footed Antechinus Antechinus flavipes
• Kowari Dasycercus byrnei
• Sandhill Dunnart Sminthopsis psammophila
• Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby Petrogale xanthopus
• Swamp Wallaby Wallabia bicolor
• Hairy-rostrum Freetail-bat Mormopterus sp.
• Greater Stick-nest Rat Leporillus conditor
• Fawn Hopping-mouse Notomys cervinus
• Dusky Hopping-mouse Notomys fuscus
• Plains Mouse Pseudomys Australis
• Southern Marsupial Mole Notoryctes typhlops
• Australian Sea-lion Neophoca cinerea
• Southern Brown Bandicoot Isoodon obesulus nauticus
• Southern Brown Bandicoot Isoodon obesulus obesulus
• Greater Bilby Macrotis lagotis
• Greater Long-eared Bat Nyctophilus timoriensis‍

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South Australia: Mammals cited as rare

The South Australia National Parks and Wildlife Department cited the following species as rare

• Lesser Hairy-footed Dunnart Sminthopsis youngsoni
• Yellow-bellied Sheathtail Bat Saccolaimus flaviventris
• Hill's Sheathtail Bat Taphozous hilli
• Eastern Grey Kangaroo Macropus giganteus
• Red-necked Wallaby Macropus rufogriseus
• Black-footed Rock Wallaby Petrogale lateralis pearsoni
• Swamp Rat Rattus lutreolus
• Australian Fur-seal Arctocephalus pusillus
• Sugar Glider Petaurus breviceps
• Common Brushtail Possum Trichosurus vulpecular
• Leopard Seal Hydrurga leptonyx
• Southern Elephant Seal Mirounga leonine
• Brush-tailed Bettong Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi
• Grey-headed Flying-fox Pteropus poliocephalus
• Little Red Flying-fox Pteropus scapulatus
• Common Wombat Vombatus ursinus

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Treatment of Kangaroos in South Australia 2025

“South Australia is currently in a significant drought phase. This is not an excuse to kill whatever wildlife remains. It is a time to help wildlife to ensure there are no more extinctions in the state”. Peter Hylands

Set aside the South Australian Government’s inflated population estimates, and oddly the South Australian Government’s own data tells a very different story. A story of continual decline and not increase. The actual take is the key to understanding what is really happening to Kangaroo populations in the state. In some years, divergence of quota and actual take is very large indeed, this is an indicator that population estimates for each species are too high, resulting in unobtainable quotas, which cannot be met.

The total Kangaroo population estimate for South Australia in 2024, which sets 2025 quotas, is 4,922,375 (includes Eastern Grey Kangaroo) giving a quota for 2025 of 805,800, up from 577,000 in the previous year. If the quota was met in 2025, this would mean 230,000 joeys (not included in the data) would also die by decapitation, beaten to death or starvation if they escape.

While this cruel trade in wildlife should not occur at all, the following species should be removed from the commercial list with immediate effect because of significant damage to actual populations:

• Euro.

Then the recent 2020 additions:

• Kangaroo Island Sooty Kangaroo;
• Tammar Wallaby; and
• Eastern Grey Kangaroo.

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Red Kangaroo

• Estimated population is 2,975,551;
• 47 per cent increase on previous year;
• Previous year estimate was 2,019,168; and
• Quota is 563,900.

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Mainland Western Grey Kangaroo

• Estimated population (excluding Southern Agricultural region) is 938,598;
• 46 per cent increase on previous year;
• Previous year estimate was 643,427; and
• Quota is 164,200.

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Euro

• Estimated population is 460,774;
• 7 per cent increase on previous year;
• Previous year estimate was 430,872; and
• Quota is 46,400.

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Kangaroo Island Western Grey Kangaroo

• Kangaroo Island was not surveyed during 2024;
• Estimated population is 41,781 (from 2021 population estimate); and
• Quota is 4,178.

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Tammar Wallaby

• Tammar Wallabies were not surveyed during 2024;
• Estimated population is 384,671 (from 2021 population estimate); and
• Quota is 19,200.

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Eastern Grey Kangaroo

• The population estimate for 2023 has been used to set quota;
• Estimated population is 121,000; and
• The quota is 12,100.

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“Those of us who opposed the slaughter warned that once an industry started, it has its own imperatives and would kill increasing numbers of Kangaroos, even if populations crashed. Even the Queensland Government can claim full marks for its far sightedness on this score, despite its questionable reasoning. It said in 1984, it is important to recognise that while the Kangaroo industry was originally a response to the pest problem caused by these animals it has now come to exist in its own right as the user of a renewable natural resource and thus serves its own interests”. Juliet Gellatley, Kangaroos: myths and realities, AWPC, 2005

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What does compliance management in South Australia actually look like?

Statements about strict compliance surveillance from Australian state governments can be misleading. The claim is always made but is it true?

In South Australia there are no compliance checks relating to the actual shooting of Kangaroos or the shooters as they are doing the shooting. This means that it is impossible for the South Australian Government to know just how many Kangaroos were body shot (ie not head shot as required by the regulations). There are no checks in relation to the actual shooting as this compliance task is considered too dangerous for government employees.

To recap, 100,896 Kangaroos were killed for commercial gain during 2022, slightly more than for 2021 (97,389 kangaroos), against a quota of  455,800, just 22 per cent of the 2022 quota.

“Due to work health and safety considerations, DEW staff do not conduct compliance of permit holders while they are actively shooting Kangaroos in the field”.

The department, DEW, does conducts compliance checks by inspecting carcasses in field chillers and at meat processing works.

In 2022, 10 expiation notices, 24 caution notices and four warning letters were issued regarding offences in relation to Kangaroos killed for commercial gain in South Australia

These notices were issued for: permit holder to supply returns within 14 days (17); use of out of date sealed tags (11); fail to return unused and out-of-date sealed tag (5) and other (4). There is no mention of any animal welfare issues. 

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Bounty and a looming massacre

More dubious claims and more incentives to kill even more Kangaroos, and at a time when the South Australian Government is conducting a Kangaroo Inquiry in the state.

As a rough estimate we are talking about an incentive to kill around 150,00 Kangaroos, that is 50,000 more than they were able to kill for commercial gain in 2024.

“Kangaroo numbers are high right now due to the drought that's followed successive good seasons. The Kangaroos, many of which are starving, can severely impact crops, pastures, and native vegetation. $900,000 of the state government's $73 million drought-support package is available to support the management of Kangaroos in drought-impacted regions. PIRSA leads this project in partnership with Landscape Boards, the Department for Environment and Water (DEW), and industry stakeholders.

The project will offer financial incentives for professional shooters (known as 'field processors' in the Kangaroo industry) to remove starving Kangaroos and harvest others before they starve and connect professional shooters with landholders impacted by large numbers of starving Kangaroos.

Financial incentives and how they work

PIRSA will pay $5 financial incentive for each commercially harvested Kangaroo and $7 financial incentive for each ‘humanely’ shot Kangaroo not commercially harvested. We expect to pay the most incentives for Kangaroos not commercially harvested but we'll monitor uptake during the program. There are no limits to the number of financial incentives an individual can claim as we intend the program to offer rapid support to affected primary producers. PIRSA will regularly communicate with all professional field harvesters about the budget's status. Only commercially harvested Kangaroos need to be tagged. PIRSA won't pay for tags in addition to the $5 financial incentive".

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The impact of the Kangaroo bounty

We should remember this. In South Australia there is no achievable ceiling to the killing because populations are overstated and as a result, quotas are so high, and this results on the lowest actual take against quota in percentage terms in Australia at just 17 per cent in 2023. The Nature Knowledge Channel’s forecast for actual take against quota in 2025 is just 11.7 per cent. In addition to this Kangaroos can now be killed in almost every place in South Australia where they exist. So there are no achievable and regulated upper limits to the killing to deter shooters or farmers from obliterating Kangaroo populations. They are already killing everything they want to kill.

This in turn means that the bounty will act as a proxy subsidy to enable an unsustainable industry, based on dubious claims and an even more dubious ‘science’, to continue until there are very few, if any, Kangaroos in South Australia. Just look at the state’s track record when it comes to wiping out native species.

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The $200 daily allowance (the final nail in the coffin?)

“Everything about South Australia and its commercial exploitation of Kangaroos provides evidence of serial decline of Kangaroo populations in that state, while its government claims increases in populations which cannot be possible. For example, the South Australian Government’s 2023 Kangaroo commercial quota report gives the Tammar Wallaby’s population on Kangaroo Island as 384,671, which is an increase more than nine times the previous population estimate”. Peter Hylands

• Remember that the claimed increases in  population from 2023 to 2024 were around 5 times more than what was biologically possible, SO IMPOSSIBLE.
• Remember that the actual commercial take in 2024 in South Australia was just 17 per cent of quota.
• Remember that in 2025 the actual take will be (our forecast) just 12 per cent of quota.
• Remember that Kangaroo population densities in many parts of arid South Australia are critically low and numerous Australian species in these biomes are now extinct (and that has nothing to do with Kangaroos).

Testimony under oath at the Inquiry into the Health and wellbeing of Kangaroos and other Macropods in New South Wales (19/8/2021) a witness for the New South Wales Government’s Biodiversity Conservation Division, Environment, Energy and Science Group, Department of Planning, Industry and Environment stated:

“Most shooters will shoot for body size, but it depends on the density of the population. I did some work years ago in the north-west of the South Australian pastoral zone where shooters would shoot anything that moved because the density of the populations were so low and, really, it was almost an uneconomical activity”.

And nothing has changed except the bounty and daily allowance and further decline of Kangaroos in these arid zones.

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Extract SA Hansard 5 June 2025

“In addition to that, the program is providing additional daily incentives to encourage field harvesters to work in areas where the number of Kangaroos harvested are typically far below the annual quota allowed. That will pay a daily incentive to encourage harvesters to travel to those more remote regions. When I say 'remote', some of them are not remote in the usual sense of the word, it is simply that they are not the areas that normally have high levels of commercial harvest. The rate of the incentive is being scaled to provide higher incentives for field harvesters who are working in areas where the least quota has typically been harvested”. The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN, Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development