Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (11:12): I am looking forward to Mr Erdogan’s pearls of wisdom in the future, and I am so pleased he is interested in having a bit of protein. Now, there is lots of protein coming from the wonderful farmers of western Victoria, and we do a fantastic job. Just make sure you do not drink the Kool-Aid, Mr Erdogan, and any more business about, ‘We want to get rid of animal meat and fibre production’. That is not a good thing.

Now, what a wonderful place this is. We have got these amazing divergent views. We have got Mr Meddick on the one hand and Mr Bourman on the other, all singing from the one hymnbook at the moment, but unfortunately we have got the Labor Party, who do not know where they are. We have got Mr Bourman, who says this is not a sport, and Mr Erdogan, who says that it is. Now, look, I know the Labor Party are being pulled apart on this issue. They are in grave difficulty because there are obviously a lot of people in the Labor Party who totally support duck shooting and then there are those who do not. So you are in a dilemma. You have got to try and appease the animal sentients and the Greens. You are being contorted dramatically over this—but look, it is a great thing that we can have this debate.

I rise, of course, to support Mr Bourman’s motion and concur with his call on the government to release the advice and data provided by Victorian public servants to the Andrews government ministers which justified a shortened duck-hunting season and reduced bag limits. Look, we need a lot of data from this government. It is never forthcoming. We do not know why we had a whole lot of things relating to COVID that were never released. At least release the information regarding a decision on duck hunting—that would be good. I am obviously already on the record condemning the decision made by the government which drastically curtailed the length of the season and reduced the daily bag permitted—a decision based on ideology rather than science, clearly, and flying in the face of freedom, tradition and the interests of the rural economy. It is crucial therefore to expose how the minister came to this flawed decision.

Opposition to duck hunting is sprung from several different ill-conceived beliefs. One of those is the fringe, far-left ideology of animal activism that opposes all recreational and agricultural uses of animals, founded on an idea of animal sentience. Another is a complete disdain for the country way of life. Both of these I have discussed at length in this house, but today I would like to particularly draw attention to the nonsense perpetrated by anti-duck-hunting activists with regard to conservation. Their complete misconception is that duck hunting is anti-ethical and harmful to wildlife conservation efforts.

On Saturday I was pleased to visit the Connewarre Wetland Centre for the inauguration of the Beretta Observation Trail. I would also like to note that no other member of Parliament in western Victoria turned up, despite being invited. There they detailed, as I have heard on a number of occasions, the very commendable conservation efforts of Field and Game Australia. At the site the Field and Game Geelong branch have built nest boxes and henhouses and introduced modelling of avian migration strategies, population dynamics and conservation strategies with Deakin University to benefit the community and the birdlife via scientific research, not ideology. They do an outstanding job supporting the breeding ground for 230 bird species, of which only seven, or 3 per cent, are listed for hunting. Their nesting boxes provide homes for magnificent birds, including rainbow lorikeets, eastern rosellas, red-rumped parrots and many others, as well as the black swans nesting in the rehabilitated wetlands.

Duck-hunting organisations conduct far more extensive and effectual conservation efforts than any of their opponents, who do not lift a finger to preserve wetlands, who are far more occupied with ideology and virtue signalling than making a real difference to the conservation and the wetland environment of this state. Duck hunting is a healthy outdoor recreation beloved by tens of thousands of Victorians and has been for generations. It is entirely legitimate and is already regulated to make it safe, responsible and sustainable.

The fiasco of this year’s season announcement can only have come from a deliberate attempt to undermine the sport by ministers and departmental officials or by a civil war within the Labor Party. Either way, the Minister for Agriculture has yet again failed to stand up for the interests of rural Victoria. The Labor Party must decide whether the 2020s will be the decade of a continued drift towards city-centrism in their electoral turf war with the Greens and other activists or whether they will stand up and fight for the rural and regional communities who are continuously overlooked in the rush for tram-track votes. I applaud Mr Bourman’s motion. It is a fantastic motion. Well done, Mr Bourman, and good on you, Mr Meddick, for supporting it. It is great to be on the same team.

Duck shooters and the rural economy they support deserve to see where this cynical decision came from. We need the data. We need it all the time with this government. It is never forthcoming, and on this occasion we need it essentially to justify their ridiculous proposition. This government cannot hide the truth forever, and this is an important step in exposing that in duck shooting, as in so much other environmental policy, radical ideology trumps scientific and pragmatic decision-making. And just to tell you a bit about what the Geelong Field and Game branch do, they took on one of the largest projects in southern Victoria, which involved digging kilometres of channels and regulating structures to bring water from the Barwon River across a swamp system that was otherwise isolated, whilst restoring the natural flows of the wetlands and river. Behind all of this you can see the results. The members constructed Baenschs Lane wetland, which is over 200 acres in area, which was a shell grit wasteland and is now a highly productive wetland system, over 40 years ago. The Geelong Field and Game organisation has in excess of 800 members, and they come from all walks of life. They are of all ages and all backgrounds and are wonderful people who care about the environment and the conservation of wetlands and also bird species.

It is most important that we understand exactly what bird enthusiasts who are in Field and Game actually do. The Reedy Lake story is another case in point, where Field and Game members in 1979 were witness to the decline of the Reedy Lake complex, and they set about one of the biggest freshwater projects in southern Victoria—to restore those wetlands. It was invaded by carp, and they have eradicated that. They do an outstanding job. These are people that support duck hunting, but they support absolutely the conservation of bird life of all forms and other animal life. On top of that, they run amazing educational programs for children who would otherwise never get the opportunity to visit wetland reserves and see what is under the surface of the water and in the reeds and the wetlands—children who are in urban environments who just do not have this opportunity. This is all done by volunteer labour and philanthropy, not government investment, and they do it on the basis that they care about conservation and the environment. I applaud Mr Bourman’s motion and am so pleased that it has got this universal support. I do not know, what are the Labor Party doing? Are they opposing it?

Members interjecting.

Mrs McARTHUR: Oh, you are supporting it too? What a bunch of heroes! So we are all on the one page here; that is fantastic. We love data, we want the information and we also like conservation and duck shooting.