HUNTING REGULATIONS RUSHED THROUGH
SO
WHERE’S THE WILDLIFE ACT?
A billboard in central Bendigo conveys a clear message to the Premier.
Regulations Rushed Through
After just 28 days, public comment is now closed re draft Victorian Hunting Regulations, set to govern hunting in vast swathes of public areas across Victoria for the next decade. The government has given itself less than a month to consider dozens of lengthy submissions, finalise the Regulations, and publish them by September 7. Speedy work!
While the Regulations are being rushed through so hunters can have their fun unhindered by administrative delays, the updating of the Wildlife Act 1975 has - by contrast - been stagnating since December 2021 when recommendations for its revamp were handed to Ministers. Cabinet has apparently not yet considered it. Lucky our wildlife and ecosystems are so healthy in Victoria hey? In the half-century since this Act was created, climate change and habitat destruction has wreaked havoc on our wildlife.
"The state government has been accused of wasting $3m on a report that has been left to gather dust and remains shrouded in secrecy, more than four years after it was commissioned"
- "Wildlife Review Left on the Shelf", Herald Sun, June 2024
But back to the Regulations.
It’s unclear why the draft failed to include key recommendations of the Parliamentary Inquiry (besides of course the number one recommendation to ban native bird hunting).
The government says it has a 'policy to grow hunting’, but in the lead up to the 2022 Victorian election, the Labor Government also had policies of 'protecting our waterways so our wildlife can thrive', and 'standing up for safety. What happened to these commitments? The proposed Regulations undermine both of them.
Public safety IS NOT increasing public areas available to unmonitored hunters, refusing to conduct risk assessments, allowing hunting to occur in poor light conditions, and in so many thousands of public areas that authorities can’t estimate the number let alone monitor them. It's ALSO NOT ignoring noise pollution, postponing hunter proficiency training, delaying acting on toxic lead or plastic pollution from firearms. And it CERTAINLY ISN'T failing to ensure hunters advise authorities in advance of where they will be hunting and when, as required in other states.
With thanks to our amazing photographers Nalini Scarfe and Kim Wormald, and the generous support of Australian Wildlife Society, another of our billboards in central Bendigo reads "VICTORIA'S OUTDOORS SHOULD BE SAFE FOR PEOPLE AND WILDLIFE. STOP THE GUNFIRE"
RVOTDS' & Some of Our Colleagues' Submissions
RVOTDS’ main recommendations included:
a vast reduction in public areas available to hunters (as per the #3 key finding of the Inquiry),
mandatory education/proficiency training of all hunters,
immediate banning of toxic lead ammunition/non- biodegradable plastic parts
a reduced hunting season length to maximum of one month (June) to not impede on native stubble quail’s breeding seasons, or migratory birds’ critical resting/feeding in the lead up to their epic journeys
no shooting on Sundays, religious holidays, or before 8am or after 5pm, to ensure appropriate light conditions, and out of respect for nearby community,
closure of selected wetlands to shooting, for social/economic reasons, or at community’s request.
Our recommendations were echoed by many other conservation, environment, regional tourism and animal welfare organisations.
Curiously, the game hunting department is refusing to publish these submissions. However, we have a few on file, so here are some highlights:
Field Naturalists Club of Victoria (FNCV), which has been a key player in conservation since 1880 and is opposed to native duck and quail shooting, said “(the) shooting exposes all visitors and personnel to considerable risk and limits safe access to our natural resource for the vast majority of Victorians who wish to use these places for peaceful recreational activities”.
Goulburn Valley Environment Group (GVEG), raised the shocking results of the most recent State of Environment report 2023 ie, that the overall condition of wetlands, and wetland dependent species, in Victoria is poor and deteriorating, “It is therefore antithetical to the over-arching objective of the Biodiversity Plan 2037 to improve species’ outcomes that hunting be allowed to continue… With climate change the need to ensure protection of wetlands and wetland dependent wildlife will only become more critical.” GVEG also raised the adverse social impacts of hunting on neighbouring landholders and communities.
Australian Wildlife Society said re the banning of the non-hunting public (99% of the population) from public areas until 11 am (so hunters can hunt in privacy) “ No non-hunting public should be excluded from public areas. If this is a safety matter, why is duck shooting allowed in any public place?”
St Arnaud Field Naturalists Club “When there is protection for all other species, both plant and animal and bird, why is there no protection for certain duck species? ....All credible evidence to date demonstrates that, our waterbird species are in decline."
Hamilton Field Naturalists Club "Duck hunting should not take preference over ecological concerns for wildlife”... “It is simply not right to allow a tiny minority of people to occupy almost all wetlands in the State for 3 months while either excluding all other people or making it unpleasant/unsafe for them to visit a wetland”…
A joint submission by Environment Victoria and Victorian National Parks Association states that the shooting of native birds is inherently cruel and threatens the health of wetland ecosystems and wildlife species. Further, that Victoria’s recreational native bird hunting arrangements should end as recommended by Victoria’s Inquiry into Recreational Native Bird Hunting (August 2023).
And Australian Veterinary Association says “animal welfare impacts from recreational hunting are broad and unacceptable”... “Victoria remains one of the few states where native bird hunting, and the associated animal welfare impacts, is supported and condoned by law”.
Many groups agreed that the age of hunters should be raised from 12 to 18yo in line with the National Firearms Agreement, that hunting licence fees were too cheap, forcing taxpayers to cough up significant subsidies, and that claims of ‘economic benefit’ from hunting were false.
RVOTDS hopes to see the interests of non-hunters, who represent 99% of the population, reflected in the Regulations which will be published shortly.
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