2016-03-08
Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — My question is to the Minister for Agriculture. The minister has approved duck hunting in 2016, and that is about to start soon. One measure is that she has banned the shooting of blue-winged shoveler ducks, but when I download her Game Management Authority's mobile phone app and select these little crosshair things described as 'hunt mode', it says:
What will you be hunting today?
I select 'Blue-winged shoveler', and it says:
Your hunt mode will be filled with helpful information and functions specifically for this species.
There is no helpful information there saying it is actually illegal to shoot them this season. Is this just a kind of a stuff-up? What has happened?
Ms PULFORD (Minister for Agriculture) — I am familiar with the app. As Mr Barber would appreciate, duck season has not commenced. The arrangements for the season, which is soon to commence, have been announced. I am certainly confident that it is widely known among hunters that the blue-winged shoveler is not able to be hunted this season. By Mr Barber's own reckoning the app says that this information will be provided. I assume that that will be updated as the season opens, because there is no hunting of the blue-winged shoveler today. There is no duck hunting today.
Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — Right at the end there, the minister seemed to be suggesting that she would get the department or the Game Management Authority to update the app.
Ms Pulford — It is up to date today.
Mr BARBER — Well, starting in a week and a half, anybody who is relying on this information and has not had their app updated is going to be relying on false information and possibly illegally shooting a protected species. Is this app actually an authoritative source of information about hunters' legal requirements, or is it just a kind of a promotional thing?
Ms PULFORD (Minister for Agriculture) — I know the Greens would like very much for us to not have a duck hunting season, but the government is committed to a sustainable duck hunting season, and the arrangements for this year have been announced. We know that there are divergent views on this subject in the community, and some are deeply held. In fact I have had some extraordinarily offensive correspondence from people who are opposed to duck hunting — for example, 'You slag, I hope someone shoots you' and 'You've just approved something worse than the Port Arthur massacre' — so I know that there are great passions in the community about this matter. Equally there are people who are not so happy that the season has any restrictions at all, and there might even be some of those people in this chamber.
What we have done is that we have set about making the arrangements for the season based on the scientific advice and based on the advice from the Game Management Authority. The Greens will never like this and will never approve of it, but certainly the app can be relied upon.
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