Greens MP Sue Higginson says she will introduce a bill to the NSW parliament today that would create a responsibility for cat owners to prevent their animal from roaming outside of their property.
The bill would require cat owners to take reasonable steps to prevent their pet from roaming, and introduce a tiered fine system to encourage community education and cultural change.
The Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment said, ‘NSW has fallen behind the rest of Australia when it comes to managing roaming cats as a harmful and invasive species. We have to fix this and these laws will do just that.
‘In Sydney alone, roaming pet cats are estimated to have killed over 62 million native animals in 2024 – a shocking number and a significant contributor to the decline of our precious and unique wildlife across the landscape,’ said Ms Higginson.
‘Roaming cats are also a risk to human and community health, with these animals being the main domestic source of toxoplasmosis – a disease that infects one in five Australians. Toxoplasmosis can cause miscarriages, blindness and brain damage, and roaming pet cats are walking, hunting disease vectors that threaten public health.’
Extinctions
Sue Higginson said, ‘Cats in Australia have been an unmitigated disaster and have caused the extinction of at least 27 native species and continue to threaten 120 other species with extinction.
‘As long as domestic cats are allowed outside to kill and maim native species, they will continue to be a leading cause of local extinctions in our neighbourhoods.
‘Our biosecurity laws recognise the serious risks that uncontrolled introduced species pose to our unique ecology in Australia, but pet cats have been given a free pass,’ she said.
‘Today, community expectations are on the side of applying controls to cats in the same way we do with pet dogs, with at least 66 per cent of the community supporting laws to prevent cats from roaming and killing native animals.
‘This reform is well overdue and only possible thanks to the decades of work by the community and organisations that work on the frontline of nature conservation. It’s time to get this done and I hope the government and the opposition will support this critical change,’ Ms Higginson said.
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