Thursday, 6 February 2025

 Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (17:32): (1386) My adjournment this evening is to the Minister for Environment, and the action I seek is that the blue-winged shoveler be removed from the game list for the 2025 duck-shooting season. On 15 January this year the Herald Sun published documents that they received under a freedom-of-information request, and these documents show that the minister ignored the recommendations of his own department in placing the blue-winged shoveler on the list of birds approved to be shot during hunting season. The blue-winged shoveler is a threatened species, and hunting of the native birds was previously banned in Victoria, including during the 2024 duck-shooting season. The latest University of New South Wales Centre for Ecosystem Science data shows that our native ducks have crashed in number to well below long-term averages and that they are not breeding. The report also reveals that the minister ignored recommendations of his department and the Game Management Authority to ban the use of electronic duck callers. All of this follows from the government’s decision to ignore the recommendations of their own inquiry, which recommended the end of duck shooting in Victoria, following the ACT, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. Why did the minister ignore the advice of his department and put a threatened species in even more danger? The action I seek, Minister, is that you remove the blue-winged shoveler from the game list.