{"id":36613,"date":"2025-12-15T18:06:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T07:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=36613"},"modified":"2025-12-15T18:06:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T07:06:27","slug":"act-government-considers-lethal-management-of-wombats-despite-report-finding-little-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/12\/15\/act-government-considers-lethal-management-of-wombats-despite-report-finding-little-evidence\/","title":{"rendered":"ACT Government considers lethal management of wombats despite report finding little evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Following&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Favdoxm.clicks.mlsend.com%2Ftl%2Fc%2FeyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjExODUyODEsXCJsXCI6MTczNzg5NzY4ODgzMTExMzE1LFwiclwiOjE3Mzc4OTgwOTgyNTgwOTY1N30iLCJzIjoiODU0NDkwOTcxYWI2N2VmYSJ9&amp;data=05%7C02%7C%7C4a5c15ae4b064749a07f08de3b439391%7Cb46c190803344236b978585ee88e4199%7C0%7C0%7C639013358599064770%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=uueNb4OqWqba0gwGyJC9ts69h9F5dTQNbr6s3U8lSgw%3D&amp;reserved=0\">questions<\/a>&nbsp;from ACT Greens Deputy Leader Jo Clay in Annual Reports, it was revealed that the ACT Labor Government has developed a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Favdoxm.clicks.mlsend.com%2Ftl%2Fc%2FeyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjExODUyODEsXCJsXCI6MTczNzg5NzY4ODkwNDUxMzUwLFwiclwiOjE3Mzc4OTgwOTgyNTgwOTY1N30iLCJzIjoiNmQ3NmUyODIyNDMzZWFiZiJ9&amp;data=05%7C02%7C%7C4a5c15ae4b064749a07f08de3b439391%7Cb46c190803344236b978585ee88e4199%7C0%7C0%7C639013358599094251%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=Qgiy92bGlyjgIOehgqOZPgMcmGhsrVtR2w1RJAqrdvg%3D&amp;reserved=0\">draft report<\/a>&nbsp;to consider lethally managing Canberra&#8217;s wombat population with little evidence or ecological base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ms Clay said it&#8217;s extremely unlikely that the community will support farmers killing wombats, especially without a solid ecological and animal welfare evidence base showing that it&#8217;s necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This report in its current state paves a pathway for the ACT Labor Government to reclassify wombats as a controlled native species which would legally allow for wombats to be shot and killed,&#8221; Ms Clay said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Some famers have concerns about wombat management in the ACT amongst and we need to carefully consider those and work with farmers to find solutions that are humane and effective,&#8221; Ms Clay said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Farmers haven\u2019t been supported by government to try non-lethal methods properly \u2013 that must be the first step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;What is concerning in this draft is that everything is anecdotal. The Government itself noted there&#8217;s no formal assessment into the impact or nuisance wombats cause to landholders &#8211; it&#8217;s all word of mouth and only 3 of our 381 farmers have been consulted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;If the government is going to allow farmers to kill wombats, they need good and valid evidence that it\u2019s necessary. At the moment, we don&#8217;t even have a clear idea of the wombat population levels, nor the extent of issues posed by wombats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There is also no analysis of what education or training in non-lethal management methods have been provided to rural landholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We are still early in this process. The ACT Greens expect the government to properly engage, value and reflect the input of wildlife carers and First Nations people too &#8211; we need to recognise their dedication and expertise in this area.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ms Clay has requested a formal briefing with the ACT Government regarding this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following&nbsp;questions&nbsp;from ACT Greens Deputy Leader Jo Clay in Annual Reports, it was revealed that the ACT Labor Government has developed a&nbsp;draft report&nbsp;to consider lethally managing Canberra&#8217;s wombat population with little evidence or ecological base. Ms Clay said it&#8217;s extremely unlikely that the community will support farmers killing wombats, especially without a solid ecological and animal &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/12\/15\/act-government-considers-lethal-management-of-wombats-despite-report-finding-little-evidence\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;ACT Government considers lethal management of wombats despite report finding little evidence&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36614,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36613\/revisions\/36614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}