NEW Northern Victoria MP Georgie Purcell has pleaded with the Victorian Government to ban duck shooting in 2023, to give the birds a chance to flourish after above-average rainfall over the past year.
The passionate animal protection advocate and Animal Justice Party member has written to the relevant ministers and Premier Daniel Andrews calling for the season to be cancelled, saying “depending on what survey you looked at” birds on the game list were in decline.
“Even if they are on the increase, it’s been a really bad few years for native animals with floods and bushfires, yet we have had seasons during those periods,” Ms Purcell told The Guardian.
“We need to give wildlife in Victoria a chance to restore and to flourish.”
Duck hunters would be restricted to just four game birds per day next year under recommendations put forward by the game hunting regulator.
Game Management Authority (GMA) told the State Government at the end of last year that hunters should be allowed to kill four birds per day, the same rules imposed on hunters in 2022.
“The experts recommended to regulate the bag limit, rather than season length, if there was a need to restrict seasonal harvest,” the report said.
“The interim harvest model, which considers the relationship between game duck abundance and the extent of habitat throughout eastern Australia, recommends a daily bag limit of four ducks.
“This is influenced by low (to) moderate duck abundance, recent drought conditions from 2017-19, benign conditions in the Lake Eyre Basin and the time it takes populations to recover and grow.”
Duck hunters congregate in northern Victoria every year for the duck shooting season, with the Kerang lakes a popular hunting ground, including Lake Murphy, Lake Cullen and Hird Swamp.
Ms Purcell has long been opposed to duck shooting and is determined to use her vote in the Upper House to see an end to the “barbaric” activity.
“It’s the earliest issue that brought me into the animal protection movement,” she said.
“I’ve been involved in duck rescues, picking up birds that have been shot and left injured to die, for about 11 years.
“It pales in comparison to the people who have been doing it for 40 years and who were really dedicated to continuing that work until it ends.”
Ms Purcell said she was opposed to duck shooting because game birds were native birds for the time outside of the season.
“So many people don’t realise that these animals are protected under the Wildlife Act for the majority of the year, and then under the government it unprotects them,” she said.
“What is especially concerning is many birds that are on the game bird list are on long-term decline, their populations are diminishing through issues such as climate events and development.
“On top of that, we allow them to be shot for recreation.”
Ms Purcell said some game birds were also inhumanly left to suffer after being shot, while others shot in sky weren’t on the game list.
“I’ve seen for myself so often these animals are not immediately killed,” she said. “The birds shot and immediately killed are the lucky ones … so many end up being shot, fly away, escape and swim but left to suffer for weeks on end if not picked up by a rescuer, who simply can’t cover every area where shooting takes place.”
Ms Purcell said the Labor Government was in such a “comfortable” position and Victorians had shown support in the progressive work they had done in environment and animal welfare “and shouldn’t be afraid to take this next step”.
“Victorian Labor is definitely inclined to move away from duck shooting before the Opposition makes a decision, so we have to work in the space we are in,” she said.
“Other states that banned it – New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia – were all by Labor governments.
“When they made those decisions, the sky didn’t fall in, in fact they were broadly popular.
“WA banned it before I was even born, so it’s astonishing to me that Victoria, which prides itself as a progressive state, is still having such a barbaric activity.”
Field and Game Australia outlined its initial reaction to GMA’s recommendation, saying it was extremely disappointed in the results gained from the application of the interim harvest model.
In a statement, the hunting organisation said the four-bird daily bag limit recommendation created a “genuine concern” that a 10-bird bag limit will be unachievable or rarely achieved.
“The modelling for the Harvest Model (IHM) report when applied to the previous 30 years indicates only two years of 10-bird bag limits, when in reality we had 13 years of 10-bird bag limits being delivered,” the statement said.
“This is a result of the inputs being driven by the Eastern Australia Waterbird Aerial Survey, which is not fit for the purpose of determining game bird seasons. This will simply not be accepted as a reasonable outcome by the hunting community and is seen as being overly conservative.
“Conservative bag limits may create hunter apathy and result in lower hunter participation.
“Many hunters will simply not travel for a lower bird bag – resulting in not only an economic hit to those suppliers and communities that benefit from hunter participation each season, but also risking a drop in the number of game licences applied for.”
Field and Game said it would advocate for a full-length season, Saturday opening day, 7.30am start time statewide and inclusion of all game species.
The organisation has been contacted for further comment.
Ms Purcell claimed duck shooting hindered tourism in the regions.
“Without fail, we are contacted by people who participate in other recreational pursuits who have to put them on hold while duck shooing season is on,” she said.
“Such things as going kayaking, bush walking and bird watching. People don’t want to go these places, spend their money and stay there because they can’t use these bodies of water.
“The government has the opportunity to promote our regional areas and bring them back to life and promote nature-based tourism.”
The Age newspaper revealed in September last year that 22 Labor ministers declared their support for a change of policy to ban duck shooting.
However, a senior Labor source who spoke to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss the party’s stance and campaign position ahead of the state election backed hunting.
“Recreational hunting is a legitimate pastime enjoyed by tens of thousands of everyday and working Victorians,” the source said.
“Duck hunting is already heavily regulated. Why should the government pick a fight and ban an outdoor activity that is enjoyed safely by Victorians and contributes to our regional economies?”
Mr Andrews previously said he understood recreational shooting “wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea”, but urged those who take part to follow the rules.
“Some of us play golf,” he said. “Some people go shooting. That’s a choice they are free to make, but there are rules and I do see some reports the rules seem to have been broken.
“It’s not something that I do myself, but as the leader of the government, it’s allowed, so the answer to the question (do you support duck hunting?) is, obviously, yes.”
ANTI-duck hunters have called for the 2023 season to be cancelled following “alarming continued declines in the bird populations”.
Regional Victorians Opposed to Duck Shooting (RVOTDS) also cited the lack of breeding despite two consecutive La Ninas, and significant adverse impacts of hunting on protected species and regional communities not yet adequately investigated by the hunting regulator.
In their 20-page submission made last week, RVOTDS gave examples of those impacts, including tables obtained through freedom of information showing thousands of threatened species killed as collateral damage, tourism operators’ concerns for customers’ safety and economic loss, landowners’ fears for their families, of trespass and the risk spread of foot and mouth disease.
“The 40th annual aerial survey, one of the largest wildlife surveys in the country and the only objective long-term dataset, has again shown game duck populations are declining, in some cases by an order of magnitude. Ninety-six per cent of bird breeding was observed in ibis, pelican and egrets – not game ducks,” a spokesperson said.
“No government authority has been able to provide an estimate of the number of public waterways open to shooters or confirm whether it is closer to 8000 or 20,000.
“Unlike outdoor shooting ranges, the vast majority of duck shooting areas are neither signposted as shooting areas, nor monitored by any authorities.”
The spokesperson said closing the 2023 shooting season was the “only sensible and appropriate way” to allow the birds a chance to recover and the regulator a chance “to conduct overdue due diligence of social/economic impacts to community and that includes impacts to mental health”.
“In Victoria, less than half of one per cent of the population participate in it, while polls show most Victorians, particularly regional, want the pastime to end.”
