A National Disgrace: Channel 10’s Kangaroo Segment Wasn’t Journalism—It Was Propaganda

There are moments when the media fails us—and then there are moments like this. Channel 10’s recent segment on the kangaroo industry wasn’t just biased. It was a disgrace. A calculated, one-sided promotion of a $100 million industry built on the backs of our most iconic and misunderstood animals.

No research. No balance. No compassion.

Instead of investigating the trauma, the ecological damage, or the ethical questions surrounding the commercial slaughter of kangaroos, Channel 10 handed the microphone to those profiting from it. They called kangaroos “pests,” “nightmares,” and “herbivores”—as if reducing them to biology strips them of their right to live. As if that language doesn’t desensitise the public and justify cruelty.

They showed a shooter on screen, gun in hand, as if it were a normal part of rural life. But for those of us who care for the broken bodies left behind, who sit with orphaned joeys trembling in pouches, who witness the aftermath of these so-called “harvests”—this was not normal. It was trauma broadcast as entertainment.

I wonder how many carers broke down watching that report. I wonder how many of us felt the sting of being called “bullies” for daring to speak up for the voiceless. For daring to say that kangaroos are not commodities. They are sentient, social, loving beings. They are not leather. They are not dog food. They are not pests.

They are family.

And while Channel 10 chose to amplify industry spin, they ignored the global movement rising against this cruelty. They ignored the science. They ignored the carers. They ignored the truth.

So thank you to Wayne Pacelle and the Kangaroos Are Not Shoes campaign for continuing to expose this industry on the world stage. While Australian media sanitises the slaughter, international voices are demanding better. And we will not be silenced.

To Channel 10: You had a choice. You chose profit over principle. You chose spectacle over truth. And you failed—not just the kangaroos, but every Australian who believes in compassion, decency, and real journalism.