Parks Victoria staff have justified the use of their taxpayer-funded credit cards on hundreds of dollars worth of KFC because it is an effective bait for luring feral cats.

On Monday Victoria’s environment minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, announced an external auditor would undertake an independent review of Parks Victoria’s credit card transactions over the past four years.

The investigation was prompted by a large number of credit card transactions and credit cards available to Parks Victoria staff, the minister said.

Parks Victoria credit card statements requested by the opposition under freedom of information laws have since revealed that $260 was spent by staff across seven visits to the same KFC store over a four-month period.

But a senior Parks Victoria staff member, who did not wish to be named, explained to Guardian Australia that “KFC is widely known to be the most effective bait for luring feral cats”.

He said the KFC transactions had been traced to use in baiting programs on French Island, the largest coastal island of Victoria, located 61km south-east of Melbourne.

Dr Christopher Dickman, a biologist and feral cat expert from the University of Sydney, confirmed that KFC was sometimes used to lure the pests.

“There hasn’t been any data published on it so the information we have is anecdotal, but it does work for luring feral cats, though mainly in urban areas,” he told Guardian Australia. “Cats in remote areas are more suspicious of new foods, but cats in urban areas are more used to living close to KFC outlets and are familiar with the smell. It is a popular bait with a strong aroma that is very attractive to carnivores.”

A senior scientist with the Arthur Rylah Institute for environmental research in Victoria, Dr Alan Robley, also confirmed fried chicken was used to lure feral cats into cage traps during research projects and management programs undertaken by Parks Victoria.

“Fried chicken is included in the national guidelines for trapping feral cats and is used due to its scent and prolonged freshness,” Robley said.

However, the Parks Victoria credit card statements also reveal $347 was spent at a jewellery store, $898 was spent at a mountain bike shop and more than $5,000 was spent across five transactions at JB Hi-Fi stores.

Staff also spent thousands of dollars in visits to the high-end Werribee Mansion Hotel and Spa, and $946 at Melbourne pub Saint and Rogue. Parks Victoria employees including the CEO are not allowed to purchase alcohol on their work-issued credit card, though work-related functions and meetings are sometimes held at hotels.



The shadow environment minister, Brad Battin, described the transactions as “a scandalous abuse of taxpayer money”.

“Whilst Victorians are facing a rising cost of living under Daniel Andrews, his bureaucrats are regularly wining and dining themselves on the taxpayer,” Battin said. “It just proves that there are always winners and losers under Daniel Andrews when his response is to have a ‘review’ and not cut up the credit cards of those abusing them.”

The transactions also show purchases from the Apple iTunes store, a $311 transaction for pizza and $197 for Subway.

The credit card bill for Parks Victoria was $2.2m for last year. However, Parks Victoria has been phasing out the use of petty cash over the past few years due to the increased transparency that credit cards allow.

D’Ambrosio said she had ordered Parks Victoria to put in place a process to reduce the number of credit cards currently in use. “I’ve also asked Parks Victoria to investigate ways to better procure essential goods and services which are purchased regularly or in significant quantities,” she said.

“It’s vital that Victorians have full confidence that statutory authorities are complying with best practice standards, are working in an efficient and responsible manner and are always using taxpayer money appropriately.”

The acting chief executive for Parks Victoria, Margaret Gillespie, said she welcomed the review. “We are an organisation of approximately 1,200 staff, located across 120 offices and depots, which manages nearly four million hectares of park estate,” she said.

“Managing public lands requires significant and regular travel between locations, often over large distances and several days, and thus staff incur work-related travel costs for food, equipment and accommodation.”