Canberra minister Shane Rattenbury treated in hospital after being kicked to the ground by marsupial during morning jog

An Australian politician taking his morning jog through the capital has been attacked by a kangaroo.

Shane Rattenbury, a minister in the Australian Capital Territory government that administers Canberra, said he was jogging along the pavement in suburban Ainslie when he almost collided with an eastern grey kangaroo that had been grazing on a front lawn.

"We both got a nasty fright – and of course when kangaroos are startled they lash out," the 41-year-old said. "As the kangaroo sought to escape, it landed on me, and its claws dug into my leg."

Rattenbury said the 1.4-metre (4ft 7in) marsupial knocked him to ground, with the claws drawing blood from two deep scratches on his left leg. His right leg was bruised from the impact of the fall.

The minister was driven home by a passerby who spotted him lying injured on the roadside. He was taken to hospital, where his wounds were cleaned and he received a tetanus jab.

"The nurse who treated me had treated someone before who had been scratched by a kangaroo and ended up with a very bad infection," Rattenbury said. "So she was quite keen to give [the wound] a good clean-out."

When the minister limped into the ACT parliament a few hours after his ordeal he was bemused that many colleagues seemed more concerned about the kangaroo's welfare. "I can assure people that the kangaroo is fine," he said. "It was last seen hopping off into the distance quite comfortably."

Roodunnit? A pair of eastern greys. Photograph: Gallo Images/Corbis

Kangaroos are among Australia's best-loved native species, and a kangaroo and an emu feature on the coat of arms. But the marsupials are so numerous around Canberra that the ACT government runs a culling programme that has divided the public.

Rattenbury, a Green party member, said he accepted the scientific evidence that kangaroo numbers must be controlled around the city.

"Without a predator, kangaroos have increased in abundance and have a detrimental impact on the rest of the ecosystem. The Greens have not opposed that cull," he said. "I really enjoy seeing kangaroos, and we're very lucky in Canberra to have them as part of our neighbourhoods, but I usually prefer to keep them at a bit more of a distance than this."

Kangaroos rarely harm people, although in 2009 one jumped through a bedroom window of a Canberra home late at night and terrorised a family before a householder wrestled it out the front door.

Karen Vickers, a senior vet, said the public should remain vigilant as growing numbers of kangaroos were likely to venture deeper into the city's suburbs to feed on freshly watered lawns in the drier months ahead.

"It sounds like they startled each other and Shane came off worse," she told ABC radio. "They're really not out to get us."