Home›Questions on Notice›QoN 987

❓ Hon. Amanda Dorn questions the WA government's commercial kangaroo killing program, focusing on population monitoring, quota setting, compliance, ecological impact, and transparency. The Minister declined to answer, citing excessive resource requirements.

AnsweredQoN 987Legislative Council

Asked

2 December 2025

Member

Hon Amanda Dorn

Portfolio

the Environment

QuestionView source ↗

I refer to the Western Australian Government’s administration of the commercial kangaroo killing program and associated population monitoring, quota-setting and compliance activities, and I ask: (a) in reference to Survey Methodology and Population Estimates: (i) have the survey methods used to estimate kangaroo populations been independently validated, and what confidence intervals or margins of error are applied to these estimates; (ii) how are these uncertainties incorporated into commercial quota decisions; (iii) from the 2025 Commercial Kangaroo Harvest Quota Submission for Western Australia (Table 2), why does the Government continue to use a vegetation correction factor of 4.8 for Western Grey Kangaroos, given it was identified as conditional and awaiting further research (Pople and Grigg 1999), and has not been justified in the 26 years since; and (iv) why is the same correction factor applied to both open and dense vegetation types, despite differing visibility; (b) in reference to Density Thresholds and Quota Setting: (i) from the 2025 Commercial Kangaroo Harvest Quota Submission for Western Australia (Table 3), in the South East Zone, how is the difference between less than 0.29 kangaroos/km² (17% commercial kill permitted) and less than 0.23 kangaroos/km² (no commercial kill) reliably measured, given the extremely small difference in density; (ii) why does the Government permit commercial killing in areas where population densities are already very low; and (iii) how has the Government assessed the implications of the Murray–Darling Report (Hacker et al., 2004, page 51 and page 62), which warns that densities below five kangaroos per km² approach “quasi-extinction” thresholds; (c) in reference to Climate, Drought and Non-Commercial Mortality: (i) what consideration is given to non-commercial mortality (including drought, heat events, disease and vehicle strike) when determining commercial harvest quotas; and (ii) how does the Government incorporate climate change projections (e.g. increased heatwaves and drought frequency) into long-term modelling of kangaroo populations; (d) in reference to Ecological Function: (i) what assessment has been made of the ecological impact of reducing kangaroo densities to low levels, including impacts on native vegetation dynamics and predator–prey systems; (e) in reference to Compliance and Monitoring: (i) from the 2024 Annual report on the commercial harvest of kangaroos in Western Australia (Table 4), why was Performance Indicator 9 (inspections of active processors) not met in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, and why were only 48.7% of active processors inspected in 2024; (ii) from the 2024 Annual report on the commercial harvest of kangaroos in Western Australia (Table 3), why were only 15 out of 477 kangaroo licence holders (3.1%) inspected in 2024; (iii) of the 15 inspected licensees, there were 28 alleged offences and 28 caution notices issued. Please table the details of: (A) the alleged offences under r.84 (contravene licence condition) and s.157 (unlawful dealing in fauna); and (B) the caution notices issued; (iv) what systems are in place to detect false reporting, inflated carcass numbers, or quota manipulation; (f) in reference to Dependent Young and Welfare: (i) can the Government provide data on the number of dependent pouch young and at-foot young killed as a result of commercial shooting in each of the last five years, and how this is monitored; and (ii) what proportion of commercial shooting occurs under night-time spotlighting, and how does the Government verify shot-placement compliance in low-visibility conditions; (g) in reference to Transparency and Independent Oversight: (i) will the Government please publish the raw survey data, modelling inputs and calculation methods that underpin annual quota decisions; (ii) has any independent review of the Western Australian commercial kangaroo harvest program been undertaken since 2018; and (iii) if no to (ii), why; and (h) in reference to Industry Influence: (i) what safeguards exist to ensure that industry stakeholders do not exert undue or inappropriate influence over quota-setting, monitoring, or reporting processes?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered

24 February 2026

Responded by

Minister for the Environment

Response time

7 days

An answer to these questions cannot be provided without breaching Standing Order 106. The information sought is extensive and would require an unreasonable diversion of departmental resources.
If the Honourable Member reframes the question into a more concise question, I will endeavour to provide a response consistent with the Legislative Council Standing Orders.

View on Parliament of WA