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Looking back over the year 2000, it has to be said that the kangaroo industry has done pretty well, in the public debate side at least. The Olympic year was going to be the rallying focus for massive attack against the industry by the ‘forces of darkness’, those who would shut it down. They certainly tried their best, but really nothing came of it, rather the opposite really. The Australian public, the media, the professional environmental management community and Australian legislators demonstrated considerable maturity and wisdom in supporting the kangaroo harvest and/or ignoring the radicals to a greater degree than perhaps they ever have. The anti industry lobby trundled out several attempted protests in front of a major Sydney retailer who stocks kangaroo meat (the largest turnout they managed was 5 people), protests in front of a well known Sydney restaurant which features kangaroo on its menu (6 people turned up), ‘a major media launch’ on Manly Wharf of a ‘mobile billboard’ which they planned to tow around Sydney during the Olympics (1 US TV crew was all the media they attracted and they wound up doing a positive story on kangaroo meat as a result), letter writing campaigns to the Olympics Minister, media stunts by Brigitte Bardot, Paul McCartney and other well know radical animal libbers and more. Yet all to little avail. The KIAA is only aware of one isolated piece of bad press in one French newspaper during the whole year. However there was both nationally and internationally a minor outpouring of quite positive stories on the industry and its products. We know of at least 16 international print media stories, 5 international radio interviews and 2 international TV segments resulting from press contacting KIAA for a story. Locally there were at least 8 positive mainstream press stories during the year including a major feature in the National Financial Review Magazine. In addition the Australian Museum launched a major new research and demonstration project aiming at documenting the ecological benefits which can be produced by indigenising our agriculture, a major focus will be harvesting kangaroos rather than sheep. In recognition of its environmental and political importance the project was launched by the NSW Premier The Hon. Bob Carr. All this hasn’t come about by accident. The kangaroo industry has quietly been running a co-ordinated program aiming at improving the industries image for some 4 years. It has harnessed the widespread support for kangaroo harvesting amongst professional ecologists to generate considerable and sustained positive domestic press coverage over many years. Recent surveys have shown well over 75% of Australians support the kangaroo harvest, not bad given it’s our nationally emblem and the level of misinformation on the industry that the ‘forces of darkness’ have disseminated over the years. The lessons for sustainable use industries everywhere is that widespread
public support is possible and professional ecologists are a hugely valuable
tool in delivering it. |
