The money would go towards techniques including detection dogs and sensors, traps and a toxic gel sprayed on cat fur, Environment Minister Greg Hunt says.

“The humane culling of feral cats will give threatened species such as the Kangaroo Island dunnart space to recover,” he said on Monday.

Kangaroo Island, off South Australia, is one of five “priority” islands the government wants to make feral cat free by the end of the decade.

The others are Christmas Island, French Island (Victoria), Bruny Island (Tasmania) and Dirk Hartog Island (Western Australia).

“Feral cats have directly contributed to the extinction of more than 20 mammals since first arriving in Australia and they continue to wreak havoc,” Hunt said.

“They pose a threat to around a third of our threatened mammals, reptiles, frogs and birds.”

Meanwhile, Labor has pledged $43 million to fund legal services to help survivors of domestic violence.

Opposition justice spokesman Mark Dreyfus says the money will help Australians who are often at their lowest and most desperate.

“Labor knows how important community legal centres are to Australians,” Dreyfus said in Adelaide on Monday.

AAP