Inquiry into Victoria's recreational native bird hunting arrangements (2023)

“The Select Committee will inquire into and report on Victoria's recreational bird hunting arrangements including the operation of annual bird hunting seasons, arrangements in other jurisdictions, the environmental sustainability and impacts and the social and economic impact”.

The Select Committee’s first recommendation and the significant majority view was that:

“The Victorian government ends the annual recreational native bird hunting season opening on all public and private land from 2024”.

The response from Victoria’s Labor Government was to overturn the main recommendation.

"The Victorian Government today announced its response to Parliament’s Inquiry into Victoria's recreational native bird hunting arrangements – confirming its position has not changed, and recreational duck and quail hunting will continue with common-sense changes".

Proposed changes to Victoria’s game regulations (for recreation) are occurring at the same time as significant boost in funding for the Victorian Government’s Game Management Authority and increasing capture of public lands by shooters, along with changes allowing the introduction of commercial exploitation of native species on public land, including state and national parks. While the latter change is not impacted by the proposed changes in recreational game shooting regulations, how all these changes will intersect in the future, given what has occurred in recent months in Victoria and the potential for further ‘tweaking’, needs to be monitored.

“A rough estimate of the number of Australian native animals targeted for slaughter each year under the new arrangements for ‘recreation’ and commercial exploitation, I am adding up the government’s own numbers, comes to a staggering 800,000. This number does not include the use of ATCWs in Victoria (mitigation permits which are handed out for numerous Australian species (almost 100) and to anyone who asks) nor the secretive killing of Koalas”. Peter Hylands

As a very rough calculation around 32 per cent of Victoria is public land, that is 7.3 million hectares (more if the marine estate is included). It appears that hunting on public land is occurring on around 18 per cent of Victoria’s land mass and 55 per cent of the public estate. From changes occurring regarding the commercial exploitation of protected wildlife on public land in Victoria in 2025 and other (for shooters) favourable changes to regulations, this is very likely going to increase, perhaps significantly. We will have to see. It should also be noted that hunting also occurs on private land, the scale increasing in 2014 and growing since, and this activity is now significant. It is likely that somewhere around 40 to 50 per cent of Victoria’s landmass is potentially a home to hunting activities involving both protected Australian species and animals from somewhere else, including deer species. These are conservative assessments.

“Some residents have described living in a “war zone”, with reports of gunfire blasting early morning, into the darkness of night (outside legal times) and authorities nowhere to be seen. It seems authorities have been more focused on arresting members of the public trying to rescue injured birds, than on monitoring hunters' compliance”. Regional Victorians Opposed to Duck Shooting

I have described the journey from entitlement and enablement (the increasing capture of rights by those engaged in killing wildlife for fun and recreation) to the enforcement allowing shooters to dominate public waterways in Victoria during shooting seasons. This process was all too evident in 2024. So the bottom line is that public consultation in formulating the coming duck and quail shooting season will be replaced by the output from an adaptive harvest management model. We can only imagine what will happen when AI comes into the mix. It is likely that Victoria will be stuck with this new and undemocratic arrangement for years to come, regardless of conditions, with little chance of review in the next few years.

As for the duck shooting season in 2025, we can expect more assaults on members of the public who visit Victoria’s wetlands, including its Ramsar sites, along with more fines for people interested in protecting the future of Australia’s birdlife. We can expect the GMA and the Victorian Government to increase its promotional activities aimed at young children (including grants and direct give aways) to engage in the slaughter of Australian wildlife.

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The Victorian Government says it has been considering the potential role of formal population models in decision making and enhancing public confidence in regulatory performance for some time. Stating that, approximately 15 years ago, a panel of scientists was convened to assess whether the approach to sustainable waterfowl harvesting in Victoria could be improved by a more robust scientific approach and specifically a harvest management model that could be delivered at minimal cost. The panel recommended an adaptive harvest management approach and a report was published in 2010 which was reviewed in 2017. In July 2019 a new panel was convened to review the approach proposed in 2017 to adaptive harvest management as applied to duck hunting in Victoria.

The new 2019 panel recommended triple loop learning as a framework for adaptive harvest management of waterfowl with three annual feedback process. The panel noted that the triple loop learning strategy had been discussed in the context of adaptive harvest management of waterfowl in North America but the merits of such an approach are yet to be demonstrated.

“The panel also considered that a full annual review of the of the objectives of the adaptive harvest management programme for waterfowl is neither feasible nor desirable though their periodic reassessment that considered a longer time scale could well be appropriate”. Victorian Government

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Secret service

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Given the several years of delay to key ecosystems reports including Victoria's Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline and the Independent Review into the Wildlife Act and absolutely no outcome for nature, nor the hard work of numerous organisations and individuals to create these documents, it is particularly shocking that the new Victorian game duck harvest strategy: Draft for initial consultation with stakeholders, the secretive consultation process is being rushed through in a matter of days in the lead up to Christmas. We might ask exactly who the stake holders are? We could start by saying it might have been appropriate to provide the draft to individuals who submitted to the Victorian Government’s 2023 Inquiry into Victoria's recreational native bird hunting arrangements.

“Adaptive management is an internationally accepted scientific approach to the design, implementation, and evaluation of the effects of decisions related to managing natural resources. Adaptive management is characterised as learning by doing”.

Two measures of the disgraceful way this whole process has been managed by the Victorian Government mean that we are likely to see fewer barriers to the slaughter of birdlife with a strong likelihood of fewer wetland closures and maximum bag limits, all of it just so they can learn by doing.

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