Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, and also on behalf of Senators Hinch and Bartlett, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) Australian Government management of kangaroos tends to be structured to service commercial shooting and farming industries,

  (ii) in 2015, between 65 000 and 650 000 kangaroos suffered non-lethal body-shots and a further 110 000 joeys died from commercial shooting alone, with pouch joeys decapitated or their skulls crushed,

  (iii) kangaroos are slow-growing and are shot beyond their low reproductive capacity, with long-term government raw data illustrating kangaroo absence and decline, yet this is not reflected in the published population estimates from which an impossibly high commercial shooting quota is extracted, and

  (iv) kangaroo is a wild-shot bushmeat and is butchered and transported on open unrefrigerated trucks in the field and, in 2014, Russia banned kangaroo meat imports for a third time due to contamination, with rapid food security alerts in the European Union about kangaroo meat since then; and

(b) calls on the Commonwealth and all states to make available all historical and current kangaroo survey data and methodologies, and commercial and non-commercial shooting and demographics data for all shooting zones across Australia.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While all state-managed harvests of kangaroos for international export must be approved by the state government, kangaroo management, including animal welfare, is primarily the responsibility of state and territories governments. State management plans require that the harvest of kangaroos is sustainable and humane. There have been no adverse long-term impacts on kangaroo populations after more than 30 years of kangaroo harvest management plans. In fact, there are an estimated 47 million kangaroos across Australia today compared with 27 million in 2010. The National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies for Commercial Purposes agreed by all states in 2008 must be complied with under each of the states' management plans.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that motion moved by Senator Rhiannon be agreed to.