CONTROVERSY persisted as the dates for the 2023 duck hunting season were announced by the Victorian Government on Friday, albeit for a heavily reduced period, down from three months in 2022 to just five weeks this year.

Usually beginning mid-March and ending mid-June, this year the season will begin on Wednesday, April 26 and run until Tuesday, May 30, from 8am daily until 30 minutes after sunset.

As per last year’s bag limit, the number of game ducks allowed per day remains at no more than four for the entire season.

Cruelty, regional tourism, economics and city votes have continued to vex all sides of the debate ahead of the 2023 season, coinciding with the government’s announcement of an inquiry into native bird hunting in Victoria.

Lowan MP Emma Kealy said the government was continuing with its agenda to shut down duck hunting by stealth, by quietly announcing the season would run for only five weeks.

She said hunters in Victoria were being punished by a government looking to shore up votes in the city.

“Duck hunters are becoming the poster child of Labor’s green crusade,” Ms Kealy said.

“The Andrews Labor Government is mounting pressure on hunters that are doing the right thing, hitting them with restricted bag limits and shorter seasons.

“The government’s own compliance statistics show zero hunters of the 802 that were checked (in 2022) had exceeded their daily bag limit.”

Ms Kealy said Victoria’s hunting community takes a lead role in the conservation of our wetlands and environments to ensure the sustainability of wetland species.

“Yet year after year they’re punished by a Labor Government intent on stamping out a legal, legitimate recreational activity that helps generate $356 million for our state,” she said.

“(We) continue to support Victoria’s recreational hunters.”

Eastern Victoria MP for the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party of Victoria (SFFP), Jeff Bourman MP, said the government had given in to craven inner-city lefty ideologues.

“People who happily eat farmed duck are brainwashed into thinking duck hunting is somehow cruel, yet farmed ducks being killed is not,” he said.

“It’s cognitive dissonance of epic proportions.”

Mr Bourman conceded duck hunting was contentious but was shrouded in lies, misinformation and very suspect polling pushed by animal rights activists, used to sway decision makers to please ideologues.

“Recreational duck hunting brings much needed income into regional and rural economies ravaged by ongoing disasters and unfeeling government action,” he said.

“The government had once again proven that it has no concept or concern for the lifestyles and livelihoods of regional Victorians.

“They should be ashamed of themselves.

“I’ll be pushing the government to refund the lost two months of licence fees already paid.”

Local keen duck shooter, Travis Field, who travels to participate in the duck season every year, was disappointed in the government’s decision to reduce the number of weeks for the annual hunt period.

“Why has the government ignored the science and instead listened to minority groups?” he asked.

“The population count, as recorded in the Kingsford survey, has recorded an abundance of ducks across eastern Australia.

“Duck hunting injects a lot of money into rural economies every year.”

Elected in November 2022, Northern Victoria MP and Animal Justice Party’s Georgie Purcell, said she was committed to ending the “recreational slaughter of Victoria’s native waterbirds”.

“(Ending duck hunting is) something that Labor Governments have already done in three other states,” she said.

RSPCA Victoria condemned the announcement that the duck season would go ahead, citing declining waterbird abundance and lack of support within the community.

The six game duck species permitted to be hunted during the 2023 season include the Pacific Black, Mountain, Chestnut Teal, Grey Teal, Pink-eared, and Wood. Hunting the Blue-winged Shoveler and Hardhead is prohibited for the entire season.

Penalties for shooting the wrong species could result in a jail sentence, loss of Game Licence or seizure of firearms.

Opportunities for hunting associations, animal welfare groups, and regional communities to make submissions to the inquiry will be granted at public hearings.

A final report by the Select Committee to examine recreational native bird hunting in Victoria is due to be tabled by August 31, 2023.