I am writing to seek your support for an announcement of duck season conditions for 2023 as soon as possible. I am a keen duck hunter. I value the opportunity that hunting gives to source fresh game meat for the table and to connect with like-minded friends and with the natural world. I have been concerned by recent media reports that duck hunting in Victoria is unsustainable. Licenced duck hunting occurs on public land in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory and on private land in New South Wales. Victoria leads all of those jurisdictions in monitoring and in applying a scientific approach to determining seasonal conditions. Victoria’s Interim Harvest Model is overseen by eminent, expert, independent ecologists, and it delivers seasonal settings that are conservative, precautionary and undeniably sustainable. There are currently around 23 thousand licenced duck hunters in Victoria. Every year duck hunting contributes $ 65 million to the Victorian economy, and it provides 587 full-time jobs. Hunting organisations have also worked with the GMA and animal welfare groups to develop a wounding reduction action plan to ensure that duck hunting is continuously improving and is conducted in a manner that meets community standards. Six years ago, the Victorian Government promised to remove the politics from duck season setting, yet, we are now just six weeks out from the beginning of the season, and hunters have no clarity about season settings. Reportedly, the delay is, once again, due to internal politics.

Back in 2016, the Victorian Government promised to remove the politics from the duck season setting process. Since then, Victoria has moved to an interim harvest model that provides an objective mechanism for season setting. Despite this, the confirmation of what the annual seasonal conditions will be gets later and later every year as internal politics take over. We are now just six weeks out from the start of the Victorian duck season. Twenty three thousand duck hunters are in the dark about how the season will look. Hunters are reluctant to book education courses, invest in new equipment and book accommodation without clarity or certainty. Duck hunting is safe, sustainable and humane, and it supports hundreds of jobs and puts tens of millions of dollars into regional economies. I seek your support for a confirmation of the bag limit and season timings for 2023 as soon as possible.

Licenced duck hunting provides Victoria with social, economic, environmental and cultural benefits. It also provides hunters, their families, and friends with delicious, clean, free-range game meat. There is a false narrative that Victoria is an ‘outlier’ regarding duck hunting. In fact, Queensland, WA and the ACT are the only states in Australia that do not have systems for recreational duck hunting. Victoria is the clear leader when it comes to hunter participation, economic benefits ($65 million and 587 full-time jobs) and, most importantly, sustainability and animal welfare. The Interim Harvest Model was developed by expert, independent ecologists, and it uses the best environmental data available to set unarguably sustainable hunting seasons. Robust regulations and the commitment of the Victorian hunting community to continuously improve animal welfare outcomes through wounding reduction action plans ensure that hunting remains humane and in line with the expectations of the broader Victorian community. The Government had all of the information it needed to make an evidence-based decision about the 2023 duck season conditions back in December last year. We are now just six weeks out from the beginning of the season, and hunters need to book education, practice and accommodation and purchase new equipment; they cannot do that with confidence until the Government confirms what the season will look like. I am asking you to urge the relevant Ministers to follow the clear, objective, evidence-based advice that the GMA has given them and announce the season conditions.