MEDIA RELEASE Sunday 23/11/2008
Minister chooses blindfold over waterbird shooting galleries
A move by the Victorian Minister for Environment, Gavin Jennings, to promote a recreational
shooting scheme on farm land has been condemned as irresponsible by ALP Members
Opposed to Duck Shooting, an internal lobby group of the party.
Minister Jennings has endorsed a Department of Sustainability and Environment communiqué
initiating a Property Based Game Management Project which offers farmers monetary or in-kind
payment for providing access to hunters to shoot game species on their land, including native
waterbirds.
The ALP Members Opposed to Duck Shooting had only recently presented the Minister’s Office
with a statement endorsed by 135 national conservation, animal welfare and political groups. It
calls on the Federal and Victorian governments to forge an agreement to ban duck shooting, in
line with NSW, WA and Queensland where the activity has been banned.
Trevor Poulton, spokesperson for the group said: “We are calling on Minister Jennings to
abandon the project. Minister Jennings said in Parliament, less than a couple of weeks ago, that
his imminent decision on whether to authorise a duck shooting season for 2009 will be based on
science. Minister Jennings had said to Parliament, ‘… I am happy to rely on what the science
says, because the science will actually be determining where my decision lies in relation to this
matter.’
“In fact, Minister Jennings has chosen to pre-empt the science. His statement to Parliament is
inconsistent with his conduct, having approved the project before receiving Professor
Kingsford’s aerial bird survey count which is currently being undertaken across Australia and
due for completion in early December. The report is to provide critical information to the Minister
for developing strategies for future native waterbird conservation, and may well increase
pressure on the state government for a permanent ban.
“With a Morgan Poll indicating that 87% of Victorians oppose duck shooting because it leaves
one in four birds wounded and with bird numbers having decreased by 82% across eastern
Australia in the past 25 years, it appears that Minister Jennings has chosen to wear an ethical
and conservation blindfold.”
Trevor Poulton said: “Gavin Jennings was given a parliamentary seat by the Socialist Left
faction of the ALP and he ought to have at least shown respect for the faction’s strong anti-duck
shooting policy by consulting with its members and also the community at large before
endorsing the project.”
Contact:
Trevor Poulton - ALP Members Opposed to Duck Shooting (ALP MoDS)
Mobile: 0402 987 181 poulton@labyrinth.net.au
NEWS 
