Kangaroo Island Koalas

In reply to the Hon. S.L. GAME ().19 February 2025).

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State): The Minister for Climate, Environment and Water has advised:

The adverse impacts associated with unsustainably high densities of koalas in parts of Kangaroo Island are well recognised. Those impacts affect the island's native vegetation and the wildlife that depend on those plants, including koalas themselves.

Between 1997 and 2019, the Department for Environment and Water successfully managed koala density on Kangaroo Island using sterilisation and, for a period, translocation to the mainland.

The Kangaroo Island koala population then experienced a significant decline due to the 2019-20 bushfires.

The department is currently considering how best to manage koalas on the island and has started developing a koala management plan for Kangaroo Island. It is expected that fertility control would form the basis of any future population management. Euthanasia would be considered on a case-by-case basis to address animal welfare concerns where necessary, but not as a population management tool.

It is the longstanding policy position of both the South Australian and Australian governments that culling koalas is not a means of managing koala populations.