Duck hunting
Jeff BOURMAN (Eastern Victoria) (12:29): (151) My question today is for the Minister for Outdoor Recreation in the other place, represented by Minister Shing. Minister, by reading social media it has become apparent that a segment of your constituency is being ignored whilst another is not. My constituents are being ghosted and have no effective dialogue, let alone relationship, with you or your office, which is a first as well as being quite disturbing. I have a motion passed in this place requesting documentation, but it is my understanding that ministerial diary entries are not usually released, if anything useful is actually released at all. In your inaugural speech, Minister, you mentioned that government should be transparent. Well, Minister, here is your chance to live those words. My question is: will you table your ministerial diary entries since you have assumed this portfolio that in any way have a relationship to the duck- and quail-hunting deliberations and changes or are in any other way connected to this issue and table them in a timely fashion?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Water, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Commonwealth Games Legacy, Minister for Equality) (12:30): Thank you, Mr Bourman, for that question, and in accordance with the standing orders I will seek an answer from the minister in the other place.
Jeff BOURMAN (Eastern Victoria) (12:30): I thank the minister for her answer. To enable proper government, consultation must occur. Consultation assumes that a certain balance of perspectives are presented and not just lip-service is given to the concept and only one side of the issue is actually consulted. It is very clear to me that hunting organisations have been frozen out. So, should the minister decline to release the relevant diary entries, will the minister state in writing categorically that she has not met with anyone who could reasonably be categorised as anti-hunting during her assumption of the outdoor recreation portfolio?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Water, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Commonwealth Games Legacy, Minister for Equality) (12:31): Thank you, Mr Bourman, for that supplementary. Again, in accordance with the standing orders, I will seek an answer from the minister in the other place.