Feathers fly within Labor over the future of duck hunting in Victoria

Influential unions affiliated with Labor are warning the party is at risk of alienating its base with its “woke agenda” towards outdoor activities, including duck hunting.

Feathers are flying within the Victorian Labor over the future of duck hunting, with major unions warning the party is at risk of alienating its base through a “woke agenda” towards outdoor activities.

The divisive issue has turned further fowl because the Andrews government has chosen to sit on a report that documents how to stop ducks being wounded.

As an inquiry into duck hunting continues, influential unions affiliated with Labor such as the Electric Trades Union, the CFMEU and the TWU are all understood to have lodged submissions supporting its continuation.

But state MPs are split on the topic, prompting internal angst about the political fallout if the inquiry calls for a ban.

As the debate rages, ETU state secretary Troy Gray said duck hunting was a “canary in the coal mine” for some of Labor’s working-class base.

“The Liberals are in disarray at the moment (but) sooner or later they’ll be unified,” he said.

More than 800 sparkies walked off the Metro Tunnel project over duck hunting restrictions. Picture: Facebook

“Is this really where we want to be picking a fight with blue-collar workers. Over their rights, and access to the outdoors?

“There will be a lot of politicians who will say ‘why did we head down this road?’.”

Mr Gray said Victoria’s outdoor sports were heavily regulated, relied on scientific surveys and hunting was more popular than activists argued.

“To cancel out some of those sports, including duck hunting, based on no other agenda than a woke agenda is not going to cut the mustard with ETU members and many blue-collar workers in general,” he said.

“It’s the tip of the iceberg. A lot of the outdoor activities that our members enjoy could be threatened as well.

“I have never seen in 24 years a reaction like this from the membership.”

Many threatened species of ducks and other non-game species were killed and injured during day one of the 2023 duck hunting season.

The Andrews government has chosen to sit on a report that documents how to stop ducks being wounded.

It comes as the Herald Sun can reveal the government has been sitting on a key report which outlined a plan to reduce injuries from the practice.

The draft Waterfowl Wounding Reduction Action Plan was written last year but has remained under consideration and never released with heavy redactions.

It includes recommendations to ensure minimum level of skill for hunters, education against harmful behaviour and improved monitoring of wildlife.

Anti-hunting activists have used duck wounding as a key argument to end the season and those in the pro-shooting camp believe the report has been kept quiet because it shows a sustainable way to continue.

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP Jeff Bourman said the inquiry could have been avoided.

“It’s an agreement between a lot of people, including the RSCPA about we can reduce wounding and that’s basically the biggest issue a lot of people have got,” he said.

Georgie Purcell from the Animal Justice Party. Picture: Brad Fleet

Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell said the only way to stop wounding birds was to stop duck shooting and that the plan focused on a study from Denmark into the pink-footed goose.

“A different species in a different country, climate and environment is not a suitable comparison model,” she said.

“Not only that, it took 25 years to reduce wounding after this research.”

A state government spokesman said they were still considering the report and the government inquiry would consider wounding among other issues.

Originally published as Feathers fly within Labor over the future of duck hunting in Victoria