Anger as Victoria moves not to ban duck hunting despite inquiry recommendations

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Premier Jacinta Allan has ignored many of her Labor colleagues by rejecting a recommendation from parliament to ban duck hunting in Victoria. Instead the controversial sport will face tougher rules and harsher penalties under a new plan signed off at a divided cabinet meeting this afternoon.

Transcript

00:00 The guns will not be falling silent on Victoria's wetlands.

00:07 It is gutless, it is spineless, it is shameful.

00:10 Opponents of duck hunting thought 2024 was their moment.

00:13 After a cross-party parliamentary inquiry, chaired by a Labor MP, last year recommended

00:18 duck hunting be outlawed.

00:19 It's a view backed by many Labor MPs and ministers.

00:23 I am fundamentally opposed to duck hunting.

00:26 I remain vehemently opposed to duck hunting.

00:29 But it wasn't enough to convince longtime hunting supporter Jacinta Allen and her government.

00:33 There are many things that I don't enjoy personally.

00:36 Duck hunting is one of them.

00:37 But I can't sit here to tell Victorians how to live their lives.

00:42 But Labor will introduce tougher rules, including mandatory training and harsher penalties.

00:46 No amount of anything will stop the terrible suffering of these ducks.

00:51 A record 10,500 submissions were made to the inquiry, and it was the catalyst for confidence

00:56 that the hunt would end.

00:58 To fly in the face of all that evidence and expertise is a real slap in the face to Victorians

01:03 who want to see this barbaric practice ended in Victoria.

01:07 Labor had been under pressure from key construction unions, who threatened to walk off the job

01:11 if the sport was banned.

01:13 Labor insiders aware that banning duck hunting risked alienating traditional suburban blue-collar

01:18 workers.

01:19 For a long time there I thought we were done.

01:24 But through the help of a lot of people, with the unions, with the associations, with a

01:28 lot of Labor MPs, and I did what I could, we got there in the end.

01:35 Some Labor MPs are furious with this decision.

01:37 They thought a ban on duck hunting was a done deal.

01:40 And the impact may be long-lasting outside the caucus.

01:44 Labor has worked closely with the Animal Justice Party in the Upper House on contentious laws.

01:49 That productive relationship seems headed for divorce.

01:52 They've shown the worst of themselves and now they'll see the worst of me.

01:56 Hers is a vote that Labor may desperately need.

01:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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