Premier Jacinta Allan is commended for initiating the First Nations Treaty, but calling a 2026 recreational duck shooting season shows a profound disregard for Victoria's First Nations peoples and their waterbirds by allowing a small number of thrill-seeking duck shooters (only 0.2% of the Victorian population) to blast their birds out of the sky for fun.
Victoria is in debt to the tune of around $188 billion yet this Premier prefers to waste $11 million of our taxes on propping up a dying duck shooting activity rather than investing in a First Nations cultural, nature- based wetlands tourism industry. In NSW (where duck shooting is banned) 3.2 billion in cultural tourism is generated and overseas birdwatchers across Australia, spend $2.6 billion annually.
Yet in Victoria we destroy our native bird assets. Hundreds of thousands of sentient native waterbirds (including threatened and protected species) are shot during recreational duck shooting seasons. More than 25% suffer after being wounded rather than killed outright and shooters routinely pollute our wetlands, leaving behind bird remains, rubbish, unburied toilets and spent plastic cartridges.
The handling and consumption of native waterbirds poses risks of PFAS and/or lead exposure, as well as viral infections (bird flu). Today EPA signs on several wetlands around Sale advise the shooters not to consume birds due to PFAS contamination. How then can shooting be allowed on those wetlands?
Prof Richard Kingsford's latest aerial survey of waterbird numbers across eastern Australia was undertaken last October, prior to the Victorian bushfires and scorching hot weather. He recorded that total waterbird abundance, number of species breeding and wetland areas continued to show significant declines and that five out of the eight game species also continued to show significant long-term declines.
Today Campaign Director, Laurie Levy, said: "Last year Premier Jacinta Allan, a long-time supporter of duck shooting, was responsible for the suffering and killing of around half a million of our native waterbirds just so 9,950 active duck shooters (Game Management Authority figure) could enjoy themselves. The same will happen this year. How does this show respect for First Nations peoples by first introducing a treaty and then allowing half a million birds to be slaughtered by duck shooters, especially after Labor's 2003 Parliamentary Inquiry called for duck shooting to be banned.
