Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01747:reg:4:p36
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01747
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 4 (pt 36/80)
Character Range: 103587–106767

the standards of pet cat management, and reduce the biodiversity impacts of pet cats.

Information about cat impacts and cat management options has improved substantially in recent years, but these knowledge advances have not necessarily been transferred to other conservation planning and policy instruments. This includes conservation planning documents for cat-susceptible threatened species, especially if those species were listed before the new knowledge became available. Cat impacts, interactions with other threats, and management priorities, are therefore not consistently recorded in recovery plans and conservation advices for managers and regulators. This is a problem, because, for example, knowing that a prescribed burn of moderate to high severity could elevate feral cat activity and thus predation, should prompt managers to consider whether post-fire predator control is required to protect a threatened species. Similarly, if habitat clearing for a new road or suburban development proposal could increase the access of cats to an area currently supporting cat-susceptible species, the recovery plan/conservation advice should alert regulators to consider cat impacts, as well as habitat loss, when considering the environmental impact of the project.

More generally, there remains scope for increasing the coordination of regional planning, impact assessment and the development and implementation of offsets, as mechanisms to support, complement and implement this threat abatement plan. For example, the development and implementation of regional plans could include actions that identify key sites for the conservation of cat-susceptible species and for the strategic implementation of feral cat management programs. Assessments of development proposals could include more consideration and mitigation of the potential impacts of such proposals on the abundance and impacts of cats; and could include consideration of strategic management of feral cats in priority areas as an acceptable and long-lasting offset to some of the biodiversity loss attributable to the development. See section 11 for further discussion.

Feral cat management also intersects with the management of other invasive vertebrate pests and may be most effective when there is an appropriate coordination in the legislative, regulatory and management context across pest species. The national coordination of pest animal management activities occurs under the Australian Pest Animal Strategy 2017-2027. The Environment and Invasives Committee, comprising representatives from all Commonwealth, state and territory governments, has responsibility for implementation of this strategy.

Relevant legislation and regulation also relate to biosecurity issues, including the importation of cats into Australia. There is a risk that cats could also affect a broader range of species should any of the designer hybrids (where Felis catus is interbred with another species of small cat e.g. savannah cat, a hybrid between the domestic cat and the serval, Leptailurus serval) become established. This is because these hybrid cats have different body sizes, physical abilities, and behaviours