Australia has been fighting with invasive species for a long time. Just look at the problems they had with rabbits. Dingos are pretty much already diluted with domesticated dog genes, so there goes that species in a few generations.

It would seem like trying to protect native species should be a priority for the government.

Short-sighted -- Austraila's unique fauna is a huge source of tourism, a considerable part of Australia's GDP. Protecting fauna is as much an economic interest as an envrionmental.

(Why only feral cats, and say, not global warming, is another issue and illustrates where economic interests trump envrionmental ones.)

Hopefully we can develop society to the point where ecological concerns are no longer seen as superfluous

You think losing 2 billion of Australia's unique native fauna each year is a triviality?

Feral cats are a serious problem in Australia just like other introduced species. The government has had programs for controlling and eradicating them for many decades.

I'm not in Australian and I know Australia has a fairly unique ecosystem and this necessitates different laws than other countries. Similarly weird laws exist in every country. For example in my area it's specifically illegal not to provide heating of a specific quality to tenants, because we have a season called "winter" where temperatures drop enough to be deadly.

Like the lawmakers in the US or really any other country fair any better at nonsensical things that make their way to law.