Allowing duck hunting to continue in Victoria is shameful and part of a disturbing trend

• The Victorian government has confirmed duck and quail hunting will continue in the state, albeit with changes which would purportedly ensure the practice “remains safe, sustainable and responsible”.
• The controversial decision is a rejection of recommendations by a bipartisan parliamentary committee chaired by a Labor MP, which recommended ending native bird hunting this year.
• To us as Yuin men, Yumburra (black duck) – one of the species being hunted – is a culturally significant species and our tribal totem.

Read more:
Why duck shooting season still isn't on the endangered list

Open season for controversy

• The issue emerges every autumn when the responsible minister is set to announce the details of the shooting season.
• Each year the same groups come out to wade through the muddy water and thrash out the same bloody arguments.
• The inquiry heard non-lethal wounding rates of ducks could be as high 6-40%, or 15,700 to 105,000 based on the 2022 season.
• The government says it will accept the other seven recommendations “in full or in principle”, by changing the rules from 2025.

• But in practice these measures will be resource-intensive and challenging to implement effectively.
• And hunting-related harm to individual ducks and populations can only be reduced, when it could have been eliminated.

A disturbing pattern of behaviour

• In December 2021 I was invited to present an Indigenous perspective to an inquiry into ecosystem decline in Victoria.
• I told them of watching the decline of the manna gum woodlands I had grown up in, and how that impacted me.
• That inquiry found threatened native species are suffering severe declines and are not being holistically protected.
• These declines included “waterbird species in the Murray–Darling Basin” and “distribution and abundance of waterbirds in the Murray–Darling Basin”.

Demand more from the Victorian government

• It’s not fading in a faraway place, it’s happening on your doorstep, within your sphere of influence.
• We, as Victorians, must accept our responsibility to care for this place that sustains us both physically and spiritually.
• We must demand that governments acknowledge the environment is being devastated and prioritise policies to reverse the trend.

Jack Pascoe is affiliated with Back to Country and is Co-Chief Councilor of the Biodiversity Council.