DUCK hunting season will go ahead in Victoria in 2024, but with limitations. Many hunters feared the sport was under threat, with calls for a duck hunting ban leading to an inquiry taking place last year into whether duck hunting should continue, and if so, under what conditions.

Outdoor Recreation minister, Steve Dimopoulos has announced the 2024 duck season will commence on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, and end on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, inclusive.

Hunting start times will be delayed to 8.00am for the entire season. With a daily bag limit of six ducks per day, the Blue-winged Shoveler and Hardhead cannot be hunted for the 2024 season due to their threatened status.

Determinations will be made as part of normal seasonal arrangements about sites where duck hunting will be prohibited.

After record-high native bird breeding in recent years due to the significant rainfall Victoria has received, the Victorian game duck population increased by almost three-fold.

Whilst the changes to the 2024 season are somewhat minimal, the government announced a raft of changes that would apply from 2025, which may reduce participation in the activity going forward.

What will the 2025 season look like?

The Victorian Government announced in late January its response to Parliament’s Inquiry into Victoria's recreational native bird hunting arrangements – confirming its position has not changed, and recreational duck and quail hunting will continue with some changes.

The government will accept seven of the Select Committee’s eight recommendations in full or in principle.

While the Committee did not reach consensus in its report, the views of more than 10,000 Victorians and organisations were heard in the biggest response to a Parliamentary inquiry ever in Victoria.

Recreational duck and quail hunting is a legitimate activity, and it matters to thousands of Victorians who love the great outdoors, but it needs to proceed safely and sustainably.

Field & Game Australia (FGA) welcomed the announcement and thanked the politicians who approved, calling it a “major milestone”, though were not impressed with the bag limits.

 “This move not only honours Australia's deep-seated hunting tradition but also recognizes the essential role of hunting in our ecosystem,” a spokesperson said.

They want to move away from political arguments and focus on scientific season-setting.

“We will be engaged and will work with the government to reach the goal of true scientific adaptive harvest modelling from 2025.

“The recent challenges to game bird hunting represent just one front in a broader ideological struggle that threatens various outdoor activities, including hunting, fishing, animal agriculture, and boating, opposed by an opinionated minority. (They) will not be satisfied with anything less than complete bans on everything they are opposed to.”

They cited the Conservation and Sustainable Harvest Models for Game Duck Species report by Thomas Prowse in arguing duck hunting is scientifically a good thing for the environment when implemented with certain parameters.

Lowan MP, deputy Nationals leader and shadow minister for agriculture, Emma Kealy called the original inquiry “a sham”, saying the panel was “biased and stacked” and “simply had to be rejected”.

Ms Kealy’s office believed the Labor, Greens and Animal Justice Party members on the Select Committee influenced the final decision according to party ideology.

“As we have said all along, duck harvesting is sustainable, safe and has huge economic benefits,” Ms Kealy said.

“It is not only a source of food, but is also an activity passed through generations which helps with land conservation.

“The government has recognised recreational shooting as a legitimate pursuit.”

Duck harvesting contributes approximately $65 million annually to regional Victorian economies.

In 2022, there were almost 28,000 licences to harvest game birds (ducks and quails) in Victoria and in 2023, building unions threatened to walk off their jobs if a ban was accepted.

The CFMEU reported more than 85 per cent of their members wanted the right to hunt.

Animal Justice MP Georgie Purcell said the Labor Government’s decision to ignore their own recommendation was a “disgraceful mockery of process the community had faith in”.

RSPCA Victoria also questioned why the government saw fit to overlook their own recommendations and recent progress on animal welfare legislation.

“The evidence is there, with other states like Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia all having banned it up to three decades ago with people still enjoying the great outdoors,” chief executive Liz Walker said.

“Instead of sanctioning the injury, pain, suffering, distress of our native birds, the government should have listened to the Inquiry, and millions of Victorians who also want to see it banned.”

Dr Walker called for the government to reverse the decision.

“The recent parliamentary inquiry recommended native bird hunting cease based on extensive evidence and a record number of submissions from the public,” she said.

“This decision simply leaves us asking when it comes to duck and quail hunting, why is Victoria different?

“We urge the government to hear the millions of Victorians who have made clear their support for a duck hunting ban in Victoria and to reverse this decision.”

But Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP, Jeff Bourman, applauded the government for “choosing truth over propaganda”.

“At no time was evidence produced to back up the case to cease hunting which was factual or logical.

“The science says that recreational native bird hunting has a negligible impact on water bird numbers, with habitat loss being the key driver. A recent radio interview with an animal activist uncovered that the real reason for the attempts to ban duck hunting was that it was seen as low-hanging fruit. They don’t care what they ban, as long as they ban something,”

Western Victoria MP Bev McArthur also strongly welcomed the decision, and said she was “delighted”.

“Common sense has won through, and for once the voice of the noisy activist minority has not drowned out scientific evidence, environmental reality, economic interest and the views of ordinary Victorians,” she said.

 “I support sustainable hunting practices. Well-regulated duck hunting, backed by scientific evidence, contributes positively to our state's cultural, economic, and environmental landscape.”

As a member of the Parliamentary Committee which produced the original report, Mrs McArthur said she was “appalled to see the inquiry hijacked by a Labor-Greens-Animal Justice Party alliance, which ignored much of the evidence we heard and produced a pre-determined, emotion-driven, vote-seeking report.”

Mrs McArthur was one of only two Liberal MPs on the Committee, and together with her National Party colleague signed a minority report urging that duck hunting be permitted to continue in Victoria.

She claimed much of the opposition to duck shooting “appeals to people’s emotions, not their rational minds”.

“I always said that Research experts at Game Management Authority (GMA) should have greater credibility than a committee stacked with inner-city MPs wanting to ban duck hunting,” Ms McArthur said.

“Activists smear duck hunters as rogues and reckless hoons. They are neither. They actually care - possibly more than any others - about bird protection and conservation.”

“Many of my constituents in Western Victoria Region participate in duck hunting, and facilities, clubs and communities rely on it.

“The GMA are experts - experienced wildlife biologists.

“Should we really ignore them, and ban a traditional, healthy and economically important outdoor pursuit just to pander to the whims of activists and an Animal Justice Party MP.

“This is a welcome victory for freedom, outdoor pursuits, and common sense.”

Changes to come in from 2025 include:

•            Improving hunters’ knowledge and skill by making education and training mandatory

•            Stricter compliance levels, including further penalties for hunters breaking the rules

•            Banning the use of lead shot for quail hunting

•            Implementing the Waterfowl Wounding Reduction Action Plan, to reduce the risk of wounding, and

•            Greater recognition of Traditional Owners’ knowledge of hunting and land management

To guide the length and conditions of each duck season, the science-based Adaptive Harvest Management process will be implemented from 2025 - making sure that it’s always science that guides the season.

So, with it looking like hunters, even those that have safely participated in the duck hunting season for many years, will be required to take at least one course, if not two before being permitted to partake in 2025.

How these education courses will be structured and what they will cost to take part in, remains to be seen.

Will they be a simple online, free course going through bird identification and cultural sensitivity? Or will it be several in person, multiple day courses with a high fee component?

 The answer to this will likely determine how many existing hunters give up the sport in the coming years.