One Labor source said the proposal would lock in the 12 votes needed to pass cabinet and “settle the matter ahead of the caucus retreat”.
While the parliamentary inquiry was under way,a bloc of trade unions campaigned publicly against a ban. They alleged the proposed ban was part of an ongoing effort to limit outdoor recreation enjoyed by their members such as boating,camping and fishing.
Hundreds of Electrical Trades Union (ETU) members walked off a Metro Tunnel site in protest,while other unions,such as the CFMEU and the Transport Workers Union,lodged submissions calling for the practice to remain.
A group of construction unions known as the Building Industry Group alsothreatened to ban Labor MPs from visiting major projects and attending on-site press conferences if a ban on duck hunting was enforced.
ETU state secretary Troy Gray said in August:“It is now on the government leadership to decide if it will stand with working-class communities and work in good faith to improve and maintain this important recreation – or side with fringe animal rights activists.”
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The report made by the nine-member parliamentary committee was approved with a small majority of three Labor MPs,one Greens member and Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell.
Purcell said Labor governments in NSW,Queensland and Western Australia banned duck hunting decades ago.
“If the government ignores the most important and prominent recommendation from their own parliamentary inquiry,it is not just cowardly and spineless,it is the greatest of all insults to the thousands of Victorians who took part in the process,” she said on Sunday.
“The government will not get the same version of me at the return of the parliament if they don’t proceed with a ban. For years now,the Animal Justice Party has acted in good faith to make our case,and this will be the final straw.”
The report’s recommendation to ban duck hunting was opposed by two Liberals,one Nationals MP and Jeff Bourman from the Shooters,Fishers and Farmers Party.
“If the government can see its way through all the lies,misrepresentations and total fabrications from the anti-duck hunting groups,then not banning it is the only logical outcome,” Bourman said on Sunday.
Labor MP Sheena Watt was one of the three government MPs on the panel,and although she voted with her two colleagues,she released a minority report at the same time as the majority document. She did not recommend a ban and said:“We don’t have the luxury of closing an entire industry that contributes so significantly to rural communities.”
Premier Jacinta Allan has previously expressed her support for duck hunting to continue.Her Bendigo East electorate has one of the highest numbers of hunter licences in the state.