Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01747:reg:4:p8
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01747
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 4 (pt 8/80)
Character Range: 25305–28506

legislation preceding the EPBC Act, the Endangered Species Protection Act 1992, and under the EPBC Act subsequently, in recognition of the significant detrimental impact feral cats have on many Australian threatened species. The national management of feral cats has been coordinated and implemented through successive threat abatement plans established in 1999, 2008 and 2015. These plans have coordinated and supported the management of feral cats nationally, and contributed to major gains in knowledge, significant conservation outcomes, and broad stakeholder recognition of the threat posed by feral cats and of the need for actions to reduce that threat. This plan seeks to build on and extend those gains.

The Australian Government develops threat abatement plans with input from other levels of government, natural resource managers, scientific experts, First Nations people and other relevant stakeholders and it then facilitates their implementation through partnerships and co-investments.

Threat abatement plans for invasive species like feral cats not only strive for better technical solutions, but also include critical enabling objectives such as:

       * ensuring that knowledge of abatement methods is disseminated in accessible formats to potential users
       * addressing social, legal and economic knowledge gaps and barriers
       * identifying research priorities

       * integrating interests relating to biodiversity conservation with biosecurity and agricultural production, and human health and amenity considerations.

Recovery plans and conservation advices for threatened species that are susceptible to predation by cats may also outline priorities for cat management and research. In some cases, management relevant to this threat abatement plan will also be relevant to other threat abatement plans (such as those for predation by the European red fox Vulpes vulpes), and vice versa, and coordination and complementarity of such plans should contribute to the effective and efficient delivery of multiple objectives.

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. This threat abatement plan provides guidance for the management of feral cats within that broader context.

     2.2  Review of the 2015 threat abatement plan

In accordance with the requirements of the EPBC Act, the 2015 threat abatement plan for predation by feral cats (Department of the Environment 2015a) was reviewed in 2021 by the (then) Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. The review found that the 2015 plan had provided a good national framework for actions included in the first (2015-2020) Threatened Species Strategy (Department of the Environment 2015b), and for research and management undertaken by the National Environmental Science Program, state and territory governments, researchers, local groups and other stakeholders. However, the review also found that predation by feral