Wednesday, 1 November 2023

Select Committee on Victoria’s Recreational Native Bird Hunting Arrangements

Inquiry into Victoria’s Recreational Native Bird Hunting Arrangements

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (17:20): I rise to speak on the select committee report into native bird hunting arrangements. It was a committee inquiry which I was on with a number of colleagues who are in this chamber, including Ms Bath, who I worked very closely with, and Mrs McArthur of course. I came into that inquiry with an open mind as someone who has never duck hunted before and never had an interest in duck hunting – and to be honest, I still do not have an interest in going duck hunting. But I came in with an open mind, keen to educate myself and be educated on native bird hunting in Victoria. I gained great appreciation for people that do duck hunt. I learned great appreciation for this great recreational activity that people partake in and that is often passed down from generation to generation. I know my colleagues heard from witnesses who spoke about how it is an escape from everyday life – a lot of people that do duck hunt work long hours on, say, Big Build sites and book their leave in advance and go duck hunting as an escape from everyday life. I learned a lot about the conservation efforts being done by hunters across Victoria, and visiting a place like Heart Morass, a desert salt plain about a decade ago turned into a beautiful oasis, it really gave me a great appreciation for the work that they do.

I certainly had a lot of inquiries in my electorate of Northern Metropolitan Region about duck hunting, and I think the overwhelming majority were in favour. I have met with a lot of them, and I took the initiative to organise a forum of duck hunters in Craigieburn last week.

Melina Bath: And how’d that go?

Evan MULHOLLAND: It went extraordinarily well, Ms Bath. There were over 400 people in attendance at the Hume Global Learning Centre in Craigieburn.

Bev McArthur: I bet there were some unionists there.

Evan MULHOLLAND: There were. I saw many a CFMEU and an Electrical Trades Union badge. I know there were representatives from the union’s outdoor recreation advocacy group, who are quite concerned about the government’s incoming decision on this. We saw a bizarre scenario throughout that committee reporting process, where we had the government as a bloc vote to ban duck hunting and then one of the government’s own MPs submit a dissenting report not agreeing with the position they had voted on as a bloc, so that was certainly commented on. I want to thank my colleague in the other place Emma Kealy, the Shadow Minister for Agriculture, for coming to speak. I want to thank Lucas Cooke, the CEO of Field and Game Australia, for coming to speak as well. Overwhelmingly, the mood in the room was quite positive. The mood in the room was a message that we are not going to let this go; we are not going to let the Labor Party take away duck hunting in Victoria.

Some pretty stark statistics came out recently on a number of their marginal seats actually and the amount of duck hunters that are in those marginal seats. If you look at the seat of Bass, the margin is 102 votes, yet there are 1467 duck hunters – and they all vote. In the seat of Yan Yean – and I know many of the hunting clubs send people along to Craigieburn, the seat next door – there are 2252 licensed duck hunters and the margin is only 1683. In Pakenham there are 683 duck hunters – 154 votes. I know Mrs McArthur will be interested in this, and so will Mr McCracken: in Ripon there are 2220 licensed duck hunters, but the margin is 1268. And I hear the member for Ripon may be lobbying to stop a ban on duck hunting. Maybe Mr Galea could enlighten me whether the member for Ripon lobbied to keep duck hunting in her electorate. It was a fantastic forum. I want to thank everyone who showed up to sign the open letter that I am going to send to Jacinta Allan to keep duck hunting going in Victoria.