Victoria may have held its last duck hunting season after an inquiry recommended a ban, riling shooters and some unions.
An upper house committee tabled a report to state parliament on Thursday calling for recreational duck hunting to be banned across all Victorian public and private land from 2024.
Committee chair and Labor MP Ryan Batchelor said native bird populations had been falling over the past 40 years because of habitat loss.
Other recommendations include converting duck hunting reserves into public land where people can camp and fish, allowing traditional owners to continue hunting, and retaining exemptions for farmers to control bird populations on agricultural land.
Neos Kosmos spoke with President of Australian Hellenic Games & Conservation Leo Kossaris, who asked “why are we banning it?” and says a tradition will be lost if the ban goes through.
“This is generations and generations of something we do as a family with our kids, parents and grandfathers, and something we look forward to,” he told Neos Kosmos.
“I’ve got two kids that I would love to pass it down to and take them with me, show them what my dad taught me.
“It will be very sad to see it go.”
Duck hunting has its economic benefits says Kossaris, saying that millions of dollars “go into regional Victoria when hunters come to town.”
“The money that our shooters pump into the country towns on a weekend is crazy!”
“I’ve heard some ridiculous amounts of what we spend on those weekends that help those towns.”
He said hunters, support local shops, “takeaway shop, the bakery, the Safeway, IGA’s… we are getting stuff we need for the three-four days, we are out there camping.”
Kossaris questioned why other recreational activities aren’t being looked at if duck hunting, and said that hunters are doing farmers a favour.
“It’s no different to fishing. You go fishing and you pull out a fish, is it not inhumane?”
He called ducks “a pest” and said “Farmers are losing tens of thousands of dollars of crop that these ducks are eating.”
Wounded ducks
Duck wounding estimates provided to the committee ranged from six per cent to 40 per cent each year, at least 15,700 ducks during the 2022 season.
Even with improved safeguards, the report tabled ruled thousands of ducks would still be wounded.
The majority report found there was little data on the direct economic impacts of native bird hunting, but noted the state collects about $8.4 million a year from 58,000 licensed hunters.
Victorian taxpayer funds are used to monitor bird populations and hunting compliance, but the report said policing was almost an impossible task because of game reserves being vast and dispersed.
The Victorian government is required to respond to the report within six months, and Premier Daniel Andrews has indicated it will do so in due course.
Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party MP Jeff Bourman and coalition members separately called for duck hunting not to be banned in their own minority reports.
Mr Bourman said the majority report was a “stitch-up” and disputed the wounding rate data.
Channelling former prime minister Scott Morrison, Liberal committee member Evan Mulholland said Ms Purcell and others wanted to “end the weekend” for all Victorians.
“Next will be deer hunting, next will be four-wheel driving,” he said.
Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania are the only states where duck shooting is permitted.
Western Australia, NSW and Queensland banned it in 1990, 1995 and 2005 respectively.
Electrical Trades Union state secretary Troy Gray told the committee in June that any duck hunting ban would trigger a mass walk-off on projects across the state.
In a joint statement with the CFMEU and two other unions, the ETU boss described the inquiry as a “farce”.
Mr Gray said it was time for government leaders to decide if they stood with working-class communities or animal rights activists.
Neos Kosmos contacted Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union Vic state secretary Tony Mavromatis for comment but had yet to receive a response.
