Tuesday, 18 June 2024

Bow hunting

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (15:03): Last year two of my staff visited a constituent who called my electorate office in Woodend. She had discovered a pair of dead kangaroos near her property, including one with a live joey in their pouch. The mother and sister were shot illegally with a bow and arrow and left to die, so the wildlife carer took the joey and named them Beau. Last week I visited the carers at East Trentham Wildlife Shelter, where I was reunited with Beau, who thanks to dedicated volunteers is all grown up and soon to be released back into the wild.

The issue is that bow hunters do not need a permit to hunt on private land for non-native species, and clearly kangaroos, just like Beau, are a native species. However, there is simply no way to monitor and track when these animals are illegally shot, which is a big, big part of the problem. Compound bows and arrows are deadly weapons that are freely available, where no other weapon in this state is. South Australia is moving to regulate their use and to eventually ban them, and Victoria should do the same. At the very least, arrows should be barcoded so it is possible to know who is shooting these animals – just like Beau, his mum and his sister – so that our native wildlife cannot be killed at random without consequence. We will continue to advocate just for that.