Ministers in dispute over 2020 duck season with hunters left in limbo

Hunters have been left in limbo on whether a 2020 duck season will get the go ahead, as Andrews Government ministers squabble.

Standing by: Duck hunters are still awaiting news on this year’s hunting season. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

THE launch of Victoria’s 2020 duck season is in limbo, due to what shooters say is Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio’s refusal to sign off on hunting in the midst of drought.

Ms D’Ambrosio’s refusal comes despite Agriculture Minister Jaclyn Symes already agreeing to the Game Management Authority’s recommendation for a modified season.

Normally details of the duck season are released in mid-January, but Field and Game Australia chief executive Dean O’Hara said hunters had been left in limbo due to the ministerial dispute.

“My understanding is that the two ministers involved can’t agree,” Mr O’Hara said.

As reported in The Weekly Times in December, hunters’ hopes of a duck season were revived when the GMA released an east Australian 2019 waterbird survey that showed numbers were up 8 per cent in 2019, reaching 208,364 compared to 192,906 in 2018.

However, the survey also found most of eastern Australia’s wetlands had dried up, with just 11 supporting half the species detected.

Field and Game Australia has argued the survey’s increased bird count justified allowing the 2020 duck season to go ahead.

Last season low numbers prompted the GMA to halve bag limits and shorten the season by three weeks.

At the time Mr O’Hara said the Government had to at least match, if not better, last season.

However, the GMA has reported waterbird abundance, breeding and habitat availability are all showing long-term declines.

Both Ministers Symes and D’Ambrosio failed to respond to questions on why the duck season announcement had been delayed, with a government spokeswoman simply stating “advice on a 2020 duck season will be released in due course, and it will be based on department advice”.

Ms D’Ambrosio and her Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning bureaucrats halted this year’s kangaroo harvest during January, due to the fires, which shooters said was absurd given just 5 per cent of the state has been burnt.

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Mr O’Hara said any argument that the duck season should not go ahead due to the fires would be even more absurd.

“It’s utterly ridiculous to argue fires are affecting ducks, because last time I checked they have wings,” he said.

Meanwhile, Field and Game has reported market research company Reachtel is conducting a survey asking Victorians if they would support a duck season and if they did would they also vote Labor.

It was not known who commissioned the survey.