“The sort of complacency illustrated by the explosion of the rabbit population is endemic in ACT politics. Compare sitting on hands regarding rabbits, to sitting on hands regarding the budget!” writes political columnist MICHAEL MOORE.

A few short years ago rabbits overwhelmed City Hill. The ACT government of the time sat on their hands as the rabbit population exploded. 

There was a lack of action then, and there is a lack of action now. 

Canberrans should expect the government to learn from its mistakes. No such luck! Have they ever heard the saying “a stitch in time saves nine”?

They may have stitched up the rabbits on City Hill – but it was certainly not in time. Nor was it just nine rabbits. City Hill, Commonwealth Gardens, and elsewhere were at plague proportions. It should be no surprise that the rabbit population expanded beyond those areas and has spread right across Canberra.

The current ACT Government website gives lip service to the ACT Government taking action. The decade and a half 2012-2022 ACT Pest Animal Management Strategy remains on the website. 

Just a decade ago the government produced the 2015 Best Practice Management Guide for Rabbits that supplemented the broader Pest Animal Strategy. It was designed as “an information resource to support ACT Government officers and non-government land managers with responsibility for rabbit control in the ACT”. 

The guide argues “operational and performance monitoring of rabbit control programs is essential to ensure they have been carried out as efficiently as possible to get the best return on investment and that rabbit population density or damage reduction targets have been met”.

Lovely words. And there was finally action on City Hill. But what about actually stopping procrastination and controlling the spread of the rabbit population throughout the rest of Canberra? The Biosecurity (Pests) Declaration 2025 includes rabbits (wild) as pests. Apparently, the rabbits declined to read the declaration!

In broad daylight my grandchildren spotted rabbits at the Canberra’s National Zoo and Aquarium. At night the rabbits help themselves to grass on nature strips, in backyard gardens and in our parks. They can regularly be seen hopping across streets in broad daylight. 

In the meantime, the ACT Government continues sitting on its hands instead of “nipping the problem in the bud”. One difference from the action on City Hill is that it was conducted in the year leading up to the 2024 election.

The ACT Government website under Rabbit Control points out that “locations of upcoming rabbit control works are listed in the weekly maintenance update”. In checking through the weekly maintenance program for the week commencing September 28 across all Canberra districts – there is simply no mention of pest (let alone rabbit) control.

Under Service Updates on the same page, it is possible to read about weed management, mowing, street sweeping and community path maintenance. There is also no mention of pest control or specific rabbit control.

The ACT Government points out that “no control program achieves 100 per cent removal of rabbits. The aim of rabbit control operations is to reduce the populations in these areas to low levels to prevent any remaining rabbits from rapidly breeding”. 

The government recognises that “rabbit populations have increased considerably in some nature reserves and urban areas across Canberra. Known rabbit populations are monitored”. Monitoring is one thing. Real action is another. 

The platitudes go on … “this data is collected and analysed to inform rabbit control techniques in each location”. Informed is good – although taking a simple evening drive a few weeks apart will identify the extent of growth of rabbit pest populations in urban areas.

This sort of complacency illustrated by the explosion of the rabbit population is endemic in ACT politics. Compare sitting on hands regarding rabbits, to sitting on hands regarding the budget!

When will the government take action to get our borrowings under control? Treasurer Chris Steele has been given the unenviable task of trying to bring the ACT back into a sensible, sustainable realm. However, it follows years of Labor failures to eliminate the problem in the first place and contain their spending.

Nicolo Machiavelli pointed out in The Prince that “he who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building”. Even 500 years ago there was political advice about leaving things to the last minute and the subsequent challenges.

As I pointed out in 2023, there would be so much less harm done if politicians would act rather than rabbiting on before problems become endemic.

Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an independent minister for health. He has been a political columnist with “CityNews” since 2006.

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