Thursday, 18 April 2024

Duck hunting

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (17:03): (822) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Outdoor Recreation, and the action I seek is for him to overturn the heavy-handed wetlands bans given to volunteer duck rescuers over the weekend. It is certainly lovely to be here in Echuca. It is a beautiful part of my electorate. I would really love to check out the local wetlands, but I cannot. That would be illegal, because I got banned from attending them on the weekend.

There are three wetlands in Campaspe shire that were closed ahead of the 2024 duck-shooting season to reduce the risk to endangered birds, including Kow Swamp, Greens Lake and Lake Stewart, and between Echuca and Barmah the river is very popular for boating and canoeing. But there is something that many people do not realise. Mr Galea would know, as he was part of the inquiry, but these areas actually cannot be used right now for recreational activities; it is illegal for outdoor recreationists to go to these places during the duck-shooting season. They could receive a banning notice like I did. The operators of Sydney Harbour Kayaks have long been opponents of duck shooting, as they are unable to operate their kayak and canoe ecotours of the stunning Gunbower system while duck shooting takes place due to safety fears.

Despite so many rescuers being banned from attending wetlands over the weekend, it did not stop us from bringing in a number of wounded and illegally shot birds – something that we knew was inevitable and that came through very clearly in the inquiry process.

Just down the road from here, at Kerang, volunteer rescuers collected four protected blue-winged shovelers. These are birds that shut down entire wetlands due to their presence, but still duck shooters could not tell the difference between them and so-called game species, and they maim them, plunge them into the water and allow them to suffer slow and painful deaths. We also brought in coots, grebes and an ibis that were also killed by duck shooters who, despite all attempts, are guaranteed to wound and kill the wrong species.

I would really like it if the Game Management Authority and the police did not focus on volunteer rescuers like me and the dozens of others who are out there on the weekend and instead focused on the shooters who are participating in this illegal shooting, but it is very, very clear they refuse to do that. In fact they rocked up to a licensed duck rescuer’s place of work on Tuesday and served her a banning notice in front of patients that she was vaccinating. It is an attempt to cover up the cruelty of what is happening out there on the wetlands, and I hope that the minister will consider overturning these banning notices so we can get out there and do the job that the government and authorities refuse to do.