NT must heed call of unions

Dan Andrews’ government in Victoria may have poked the bear once too often with their refusal to take the advice from their Game Management Authority for a full length duck hunting season.

The ALP state government reduced the season to just five weeks from what would have been a 13-week long season.

They also imposed other restrictions aimed directly at deterring hunters from wanting to participate, like an 8am start to hunting each day rather than 30 minutes before sunrise.

The bear they poked has awoken and is the Building Industry Group of Unions (BIG) comprising the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), Australian Metal Workers

Union (AMWU) and the Plumbing and Pipes Trades Employees Union (PPTEU).

This group of unions represents over 70,000 bluecollar workers in Victoria that are committed now to ensuring “the continuation of outdoor recreational activities such as diving, duck shooting, recreational and sports fishing and the use of our state forests for responsible and sustainable outdoor activities”.

Georgie Purcell of the Animal Justice Party in Victoria said that outdoor activities other than duck hunting are not under threat “and never would be”. But this is in contrast to NSW MP Emma Hurst of the AJP who in June, 2020 stood in opposition to a Notice of Motion in support of the Gone Fishing Day in NSW.

Dan Andrews has called for a Select Committee review into duck hunting in Victoria with the AJP’s Georgie Purcell as one of the participants.

I hope the politicians in the NT are considering what the unions may do here in the event of anything less than a normal four-month long season with a seven-goose and 10-duck bag limit each year.

NT Field and Game has clay target practice at the Mickett Creek Shooting Complex range today from 9am till noon.