Following South Australia’s lead, to subsidise yet more Kangaroo killing, Victoria is now doing something similar. This does not appear to be a direct bounty as is the case in South Australia but we are still unclear as to how the amount of money being paid to a particular land holder will be measured. And I can tell you now that there will not be any permits for non-lethal control, so the government will need to provide the split between lethal and non-lethal control and provide the detail of which species are being targeted (ATCWs target all species of Kangaroo and Wallaby in Victoria}.

So we are clear on the quantum of what actually occurs, since 2021 the Victorian Government has been required to publish the split between lethal and non-lethal ATCW permits it issues. For the three species of Kangaroo in Victoria (the Wallaby species fare no better) this is what happened in relation to the issuing of  ATCW permits in the four years 2021 to 2024:

• For the Red Kangaroo, and mostly on public land including National Parks (Parks Victoria), lethal permits were issued to kill 28,516 Red Kangaroos plus their joeys. There were NO non-lethal permits issued in the period;
• For the Eastern Grey Kangaroo lethal permits were issued to kill 284,790 Eastern Grey Kangaroos plus their joeys, non-lethal permits wereissued to ‘control’ just 2,012 Eastern Grey Kangaroos; and
• For the Western Grey Kangaroo lethal permits were issued to kill 23,944 Western Grey Kangaroos plus their joeys, non-lethal permits were issued to ‘control’ just 20 Western Grey Kangaroos.

So to try and dress up the latest effort at Kangaroo extermination as being humane and talking about non-lethal permits in its pronouncements, is a bridge too far from a government already the focus of international attention for its extreme treatment of Australian wildlife in the state.

It will also be interesting to see just how many of the Kangaroos killed in the now subsidised activity end up as pet food.

The following has now appeared on the Agriculture Victoria website (13 June 2025).

"Kangaroo management: Funding of 1.8 million dollars is being provided to support farmers manage Kangaroos on their property. Drought-affected farmers whose livestock are competing with Kangaroos for fodder will soon be able to apply for rebates to engage professional shooters to control Kangaroos under an approved authority to control wildlife (ATCW). The rebate program will help already time-poor farmers to hire authorised professional shooters, with harvesting accreditation from the Game Management Authority, to help control Kangaroos on drought-affected properties. The program will also speed up the assessment of lethal and non-lethal control permits for Kangaroos and other wildlife through the Conservation Regulator – reducing average processing time for applications to less than one week".

We should note that of the 339,282 Kangaroos targeted for control using the ATCW permit system (supposed to be non-commercial), just 0.006 percent (2032 animals) were to be controlled by non-lethal means.