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Fight over duck hunting set for Victorian parliament

A long-running battle over duck shooting in Victoria is shifting to the halls of power ahead of what animal welfare advocates suspect will be the state’s last season.

A motion to establish an upper house inquiry to examine the practice’s future will be introduced on Tuesday, before being debated on Thursday.

Victoria’s Game Management Authority last month confirmed a shortened five-week season would run from late April, with a bag limit of four birds a day and ban on potting the threatened blue-winged shoveler and hardhead.

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.

In SA, the Malinauskas Labor government also established an inquiry into recreational native bird hunting when announcing its 2023 season.

Minister Lizzie Blandthorn and cabinet secretary Steve McGhie have expressed dismay at Victoria’s duck season going ahead while backing the review.

Another Labor MP speaking on condition of anonymity said about two-thirds of the party room is opposed to duck shooting and the caucus was led to believe this season would be different.

Premier Daniel Andrews says he’s not concerned about the issue dividing his party room and has branded the parliamentary committee an important step.

If one set of stakeholders think you’ve gone too far and the other set of stakeholders think you haven’t gone far enough, sometimes you’ve found the right place.

While less than half of Victoria’s 23,000-odd licensed duck hunters are thought to have participated last season, more than 260,000 birds were killed and estimates of those wounded vary between 15,700 and 105,000.

– AAP