2016-03-22
Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) — Last week I attended the opening of another duck shooting season at Lake Burrumbeet near Ballarat. I had intended to travel to Kerang, but at the last minute the government was forced to close Lake Elizabeth due to the presence of protected species, including blue-billed ducks. The government had been advised to cancel the season this year due to low water levels in the wetlands and low bird numbers. It should have acted on that advice in the first place.
The water level at Lake Burrumbeet is very low, requiring a long walk — through mud littered with dead fish — to the edge of the water. Last Saturday morning it was raining and quite misty at the official start of the season at sunrise, although there was no sun. It was very difficult to see anything clearly and so it was impossible for shooters to be able tell one species of duck from another, but that did not stop them shooting. Not surprisingly, the first injured bird brought to the vets was a lovely red-necked avocet, which is a small wading bird with a long curved beak. It had been shot in the abdomen and had to be euthanised as it was so badly injured. I was told by the rescuer that the person who shot it just left it there and walked off, clearly not in the least concerned. Nothing was done about it as there were very few police or authorised officers at this wetland. Another bird I saw was a mountain duck that was found abandoned in the vast area of mud. We think it had been hit and flown off over the mud but then fell from the sky into the mud and broke its neck. No shooter came to retrieve it, as they are required to do.
These are but two of the many examples of the careless or callous attitude of the duck shooters and the awful violence and suffering that I have seen year after year that is visited upon our beautiful and defenceless water birds every duck shooting season in Victoria. It documents the cruelty that duck shooting simply is, and it is another reason why it should be banned in Victoria, as it is in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, and the vast majority of — —
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT — Order! The member's time has expired.