Thursday, 5 February 2026

 Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (18:41): (2283) My adjournment is for the Minister for Outdoor Recreation regarding public safety and access to public wetlands during the 2026 duck-shooting season. I have received correspondence from Regional Victorians Opposed to Duck Shooting, RVODS, raising serious concerns about duck shooting at public wetlands sites that are close to homes and popular public recreation areas. RVODS has repeatedly requested the closure of 25 specific sites to duck shooting across Victoria on the basis of community safety, amenity impacts and the practical impossibility of effective monitoring across such a vast area. Shamefully, over half of Victoria’s public wetland areas remain open to duck shooting during the season despite duck shooters representing less than half of 1 per cent of the population of the state. As we heard during the select committee inquiry into Victoria’s recreational native bird hunting arrangements, the footprint of areas open to shooting is so large that meaningful monitoring and enforcement of gun activity is not realistically achievable. An RVODS survey of more than 800 people in the regions found significant community concern about safety and disturbance, including that a substantial proportion of residents live within a short distance of active duck-shooting areas, with many reporting they live within a few kilometres and some within hundreds of metres. They state that the only two formal risk assessments that have ever been conducted for duck-shooting areas resulted in assessments that led to both wetlands being subsequently closed to hunting.

Some of the 25 sites requested for closure include Ramsar-listed wetlands, and RVODS asks why sites of international environmental significance would continue to be used for recreational shooting when the public should expect that these places are safe for wildlife, safe for families visiting and enjoying the outdoors and safe for all the recreational tourism businesses that rely on them. They have also asked the government to explain the difference between the 25 sites they have identified and the two Mildura wetlands that were closed to duck shooting on public safety grounds in 2019. I ask the minister to close these 25 sites identified to duck shooting in the 2026 season. Minister, if you will not, provide clear reasons, including what land manager consultation, what safety risk assessments and what evidence your decision has relied upon – and will you please outline what enforcement resources are in place to ensure community safety at those locations throughout the season? People like the Regional Victorians Opposed to Duck Shooting are entitled to feel safe in the wetlands near their homes.