More Australian wildlife to be shot! 30/12/09

Victoria's duck hunting season will be cut by two weeks again in 2010 but hunters will be able to increase their hauls by three to five ducks per bag. Acting Minister for Environment and Climate Change Tim Holding said the compromise struck a balance between ensuring sustainable duck numbers and the interests of hunters. The season, which allows hunters to legally shoot native birds, Australian wildlife, will run from March 20 to May 30. Mr Holding says population data collected across eastern Australia indicated duck numbers had increased since the last duck season. "On balance the Government is convinced that hunting will not adversely affect populations of ducks at the levels allowed for the 2010 season," he said.

But the COALITION AGAINST DUCK SHOOTING have accused Premier John Brumby of being just another climate change sceptic and slammed the Victorian Brumby Government for selling out Australia’s native waterbirds by calling a recreational duck shooting season for political reasons. The Coalition Against Duck Shooting’s Campaign Director, Laurie Levy, today said: "The Brumby Government’s decision to allow a duck shooting season in 2010 is totally irresponsible and a betrayal of the 87% of Victorians who want the recreational shooting of native waterbirds banned.

"At a time when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been in Copenhagen seeking an agreement on serious climate change issues, Premier Brumby seems oblivious to the potential crisis and has irresponsibly called another duck shooting season when Australian wildlife, our native waterbirds are under extreme stress." "With wetlands drying and waterbird numbers down by 82% since 1983, Premier Brumby is acting like a climate change sceptic who lacks the vision to understand the serious plight native waterbirds face," said Levy.

"It is difficult to understand how a modern Victorian Labor Government in the 21st century can still have the same destructive policies towards Australia’s native waterbirds as the Bolte Liberal Government of the 1950s and 60s. Times have changed, with the recreational shooting of native waterbirds banned by three State Labor Premiers in WA, NSW and Queensland," Levy said. "As the Brumby Government has again made a political decision to look after their duck shooting mates, the Coalition Against Duck Shooting fully supports Ted Baillieu’s call for an independent Crime Commission to be established in Victoria.

"Calling another season simply for political reasons to accommodate a small number of duck shooters is corruption and must be investigated by a Crime Commission. It defies all the scientific evidence that indicates waterbird numbers have seriously declined, and the fact that most Victorians want native waterbirds protected (87% according to a recent Morgan Research Poll). "Once again the Coalition Against Duck Shooting’s rescue team will return to the wetlands to protect Australia’s native waterbirds from recreational shooters," Levy concluded.