Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Statements on tabled papers and petitions

Select Committee on Victoria’s Recreational Native Bird Hunting Arrangements

Inquiry into Victoria’s Recreational Native Bird Hunting Arrangements

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (16:57): I rise to make a statement on the final report of the Select Committee on Victoria’s Recreational Native Bird Hunting Arrangements, which was tabled in this place on 31 August last year. Last week the government announced its response to the 2023 report of the select committee into duck hunting here in Victoria, and that response is to allow the recreational hunting of native birds to continue in Victoria. As chair of the select committee, many have reached out seeking my response to the decision of the government, and I thought this contribution was the best way to put my response on the public record.

I am disappointed by the government’s decision. As the committee’s final report recommended, I believe that native duck hunting should end. In saying that, I did come to the 2023 inquiry and the committee with no fixed view. On the committee I was persuaded by the environmental science that the long-term trends show native bird populations are in decline despite the occasional bumper year, and two bird species that were once routinely hunted are now threatened species and protected. I interrogated the regulatory framework and found the compliance and enforcement system severely wanting. The Game Management Authority has a chequered past as an effective regulator. Things have improved, but there is a long way to go.

The GMA’s focus is often on keeping public order between hunters and animal welfare activists rather than on checking compliance with hunting regulations. In 2022 the committee was told that only 11 per cent of hunters had a licence check from the GMA and only 9 per cent of bags were examined. I came to the view that by its nature and under the way that wildlife game regulations operate, bird hunting is exclusionary – the rules operate to exclude non-hunters from vast tracts of public lands during hunting season in a way that, for example, fishing or boating simply do not. But these are my views, and others have different views. Lots of Victorians, the committee inquiry showed us, are very passionate about this issue. Respectful debate, even with disagreement, is healthy for our democracy.

In making the announcement of the government’s response last week, Minister Dimopoulos said that the government had accepted that Victorians should be able to hunt native birds. The government response also acknowledged that the current regulatory and enforcement rules were not good enough. The government accepted seven of the eight recommendations made by the committee to improve hunter behaviour and strengthen compliance and enforcement, and beyond the recommendations the report of the committee made a series of findings about ways to improve the current regulatory framework, including by introducing new hunter proficiency tests so that hunters actually have to demonstrate that they know how to shoot and by making regular retesting of the waterfowl identification test so that hunters know what birds they are allowed to shoot. These will be new requirements for hunters, and I welcome these moves. They are necessary. Whether they are sufficient is the next test for the hunting community, because that is where the future of this issue now rests – in the hands of game hunters, their associations and the Game Management Authority. Their behaviour and their actions will now demonstrate whether they are worthy of the faith that the government has shown in them.

The Sporting Shooters’ Association told the inquiry that no threatened bird species should be mistakenly shot by hunters – not one – and Field and Game Australia gave similar evidence. On how to improve hunter compliance with the rules Gary Howard, the caretaker of Field and Game’s private wetland in Sale, said:

Peer pressure is probably the biggest factor that can be brought to bear on hunters that are doing the wrong thing …

These are now the thresholds for acceptable hunter behaviour. These are the standards that must be met. The committee’s report said that the 2023 season was arguably the most scrutinised on record, and yet we found that infractions against hunting regulations still occurred. The eyes of many will be on hunters in 2024 and beyond.