Wednesday, 16 October 2024

 Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (09:54): When I got banned from the wetlands on the opening weekend of the duck-shooting season for committing the apparently awful crime of saving wounded and suffering wildlife, I paid the $1000 fine. But I will tell you who did not: Laurie Levy, the 82-year-old veteran campaigner who started the Coalition Against Duck Shooting before I was even born and who was out on the boat with me. He was not taking the Game Management Authority’s nonsense. This week a magistrate heard his case to contest it. He was told his work was appreciated, and his fine was rescinded in full and replaced with just $500 in court costs and a good behaviour bond with no conviction. The best part of it all is that the GMA did not make a cent. This is consistent with the community’s expectations – the very ones the government ignored when their own inquiry recommended that they end the recreational slaughter of our wildlife. We are still feeling the pain of that betrayal, but Laurie’s persistence and passion fills me with hope and gives me a resilience I never thought possible. It might take us longer than we thought, but we will end duck shooting in Victoria. Because as Laurie said to me over 10 years ago – and it is now tattooed on my arm – kindness always trumps violence.