Why the Voice could change hunting in NT forever

Hunting in the NT could be set to change forever if the Voice referendum passes. ALL THE DETAILS

Being a hunter in Australia is like barracking for Collingwood.

You are up against every other team in the league and the umpires appear to have been bought off, so bewildering are the decisions they make.

A Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry released on August 31 is calling for a complete ban on recreational duck and quail shooting in Victoria from next year.

It recommends an end to the annual duck and quail hunting season on all private and public land from 2024, although traditional owners will retain the right to hunt these native birds.

It comes after a six-month inquiry process with more than 10,000 submissions received – the rgest ever in Victorian parliament history.

The majority of which were in favour of duck and quail hunting.

The Inquiry was stacked with a majority of Labor and Animal Justice Party members who oppose hunting.

Despite expert evidence from wetland and waterfowl experts Professor Richard Kingsford and Dr Klaasen that duck hunting had no impact on overall duck populations and in fact regularly focused government on those populations and the real threat of habitat destruction, they still came up with this conclusion.

It can even be said vital information that supported this stance was held back by authorities until after the decision was made.

The most galling example of this surrounds the stonewalling of the Committee’s requests for access to the Conservation and Sustainable Harvest Models for Game Duck Species report.

This report was a commitment under the Sustainable Hunting Action Plan, and it makes recommendations on annual game duck harvest quotas to ensure that populations are maintained above a minimum population threshold to not compromise the viability of game duck species.

When it comes to the question of ensuring game duck seasons in Victoria are environmentally

sustainable, this report is the most compelling answer imaginable.

On July 27 a report was commissioned to research and develop population models for Victorian game duck species.

It would inform the identification of sustainable rates of harvest of game ducks and guidelines for setting the annual recreational hunting arrangements, and to support the development of a game duck adaptive harvest management framework and strategy.

The research was completed on July 6, but this report was not tabled until August 28, one week after final deliberations occurred by the Committee on August 21.

That report unequivocally shatters the core rationale for the Select Committee’s primary recommendation to ban native bird hunting.

The boundary umpire that looked the other way when Geelong’s Jeremy Cameron received a

handball and kicked a goal from out of bounds against Collingwood comes to mind.

Duck hunting season could chanhge forever Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

What really riles me is that the argument from the Animal Justice Party focused on cruelty grounds, but traditional owners will still be permitted to hunt duck and quail.

Give me a break.

Do Traditional Owners kill ducks with a Green Dream injection?

This is an early example of what life in Australia might be like for outdoor enthusiasts if the Voice referendum is successful.

I predict that non-indigenous Australians will be banned from all forms of hunting, fishing, rock climbing, fossicking, water skiing, motorbike trail riding and any other form of outdoor recreation.

The Animal Justice Party won’t stop at duck hunting.

They firmly have recreational fishing in their sights as declared by an AJP member in the NSW parliament.

They oppose horse and greyhound racing, all forms of animal agriculture, even pet ownership. So, punters won’t be able to enjoy a weekend flutter at the gallops, drowning a worm on a riverbank or even eating a steak.

Such is their mad agenda.

And don’t think this madness isn’t contagious.

Animal Liberation has had a hold of Victorian ALP governments for 30 years.

The ALP has systematically reduced seasons and bag limits or cancelled them completely. They have only had eight full 10 bird bag limit seasons in the past 28 years, albeit with species restrictions just to keep grinding the gears.

Those advisers to the Victorian ALP government have regularly been coming to the NT to also advise Territory Labor, especially since Michael Gunner was elected in 2016.

It is no coincidence that Lauren Moss and Eva Lawler pulled the same stunts here in the NT in 2017, 2018 and 2021.

Three out of the last seven seasons that they have declared have been modified.

And Eva Lawler still hasn’t come good on her 2020 promise to find new reserves for goose hunters.

Do you see a pattern forming here?

NT Field and Game is holding the Outback Batteries 75 target event today from 8am followed by the AGM around noon.