The Coalition Against Duck Shooting and Wildlife Victoria will display dead birds that were illegally shot and left on the wetlands during the opening of this year's duck shooting season outside the Premier's office, at 1 Treasury Place, East Melbourne at 11am today.
At taxpayers' expense, the Game Management Authority employed the highest number of compliance officers ever seen on Victoria's wetlands to regulate the opening of the Victorian recreational duck shooting season, Coalition Against Duck Shooting Campaign Director, Laurie Levy, said today.
We believe there were 130 regulating officers patrolling the wetlands, with a large number brought in from interstate. Issuing rescuers with banning notices to prevent the recovery of illegally shot threatened and protected species and wounded birds, seemed to be their main focus, Levy said.
Although all Victorian licensed duck shooters must pass the Waterfowl Identification Test, illegally shot threatened Blue-winged Shovelers were still recovered by rescuers in the first five days of the 2024 duck shooting season. Other illegally shot protected native species were also recovered.
"This has been the quietest opening of the Victorian duck shooting season that we have ever experienced," Levy said.
"With the Labor Government closing 34 of the shooters' favourite wetlands due to large numbers of threatened species, we expected large concentrations of shooters on the remaining wetlands around Kerang and Donald. Instead, our rescuers struggled to find many shooters anywhere, but the few shooters we did see still shot threatened and protected species.
Labor should now move to ban the recreational shooting of native waterbirds in Victoria and replace it with First Nations nature-based wetlands tourism.
Key Facts:
The Coalition Against Duck Shooting and Wildlife Victoria will display dead birds that were illegally shot and left on the wetlands during the opening of this year's duck shooting season outside the Premier's office, at 1 Treasury Place, East Melbourne at 11am today.
