ABC.NET.AU
Government and industry working to stop Californian ban on kangaroo products
27 August 2015 by Lydia Burton
A group of scientists, academics and public figures from Australia and overseas, including the guitarist from Queen, Brian May, presented an open letter to Californian lawmakers urging them to reinstate the ban.
PHOTO: The Australian Government is working to convince Californian lawmakers to stop a ban on kangaroo products from being reinstated. (Supplied: Tracey Walker)
The Australian Government is working to convince Californian lawmakers to stop a ban on kangaroo products from being reinstated.
California originally banned the import of kangaroo products in 1971. However, the state put a moratorium on the ban in 2007 following lobbying efforts from the Australian Government. That moratorium is set to expire at the end of this year, prompting industry figures and conservationists to lobby their opposing campaigns to US policy makers. Kangaroo leather is used for products like gloves and soccer boots, and the Australian industry is pushing for continued market access.
John Kelly, from the Australian Kangaroo Industry Association, said losing the market would have severe implications. “It would be very deleterious,” he said. “I mean, California is possible the world’s largest market for leather goods. Many of the manufacturers have made it quite clear that, if they can’t sell their products in California, then they wondered why they would bother with them at all. It is a very important market to the industry and we need to ensure we retain it.” Mr Kelly said he was confident new legislation would be in favour of the trade. “We believe we will get new legislation through their parliament to allow the ongoing sale of kangaroo products in California, but nothing is ever assured,” he said.
Federal Government fighting ban
Federal LNP Member for the Queensland seat of Maranoa, Bruce Scott, said the Department of Trade was currently working on the issue to try to end the ban altogether.
“We want to see that there isn’t a ban,” he said. “That is the only way you can have security of a very important trade between Australia and the state of California. The other thing is, in Australia, there are only four species [of kangaroos] that are harvested, and in my own electorate, there would be more kangaroos then blades of grass right now. They are sustainably and humanely harvested. It is based on science and there is an agreed quota from those four species that are not endangered. They are not listed on any endangered species register. We agreed between Australia and US that there are only 3.3 per cent of the estimated population that are allowed to be harvested on a sustainable basis each year. That is the message we have got to make sure is conveyed across the state of California.”
Concern for kangaroo populations
A group of scientists, academics and public figures from Australia and overseas, including the guitarist from Queen, Brian May, presented an open letter to Californian lawmakers urging them to reinstate the ban.
Helen Bergen has co-ordinated the campaign and said Australians had a blasé attitude towards kangaroos. “I think we forget how iconic they are and how interested the rest of the world is in these animals,” she said. She argued the scientific evidence clearly demonstrated that the commercial slaughter of kangaroos was putting the iconic Australian animal at risk.
Ms Bergen questioned the methodology used to set harvest quotas. “We might see a big mob of them [kangaroos] in a place and then extrapolate that in our minds, as do the surveys, over vast countryside,” she said. “I think we have a habitat of seeing 50 or 100 kangaroos and say that we have thousands.”