A Victorian parliamentary inquiry will recommend a complete ban on duck hunting, a move that could divide Labor MPs and a powerful alliance of trade unions who have threatened to walk off the job if the government ends the practice.
Guardian Australia understands the select committee on Victoria’s recreational native bird hunting arrangements will on Thursday recommend a ban on duck and quail hunting on both private and public land from 2024.
According to several sources familiar with the contents of the report, it will state hunting is not the sole contributor to the decline of native waterbird population but it is one of the easiest ways to prevent it from occurring. Other contributors cited by the committee include agricultural practices in the upper Murray-Darling Basin and climate change.
The report will also touch on animal cruelty implications of the practice, including rates of wounding of birds during the hunting season. During the committee’s public hearings, the RSPCA said there was evidence to suggest wounding rates for ducks could be anywhere between 6 and 40% and about 33% for quail.
The committee, established by the government in February, is made up of three Labor MPs, three Coalition MPs, Animal Justice party MP Georgie Purcell, the Greens’ Katherine Copsey and Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party MP Jeff Bourman. Labor MP Ryan Batchelor chairs the committee.
It is understood Coalition MPs and Bourman will release separate minority reports opposing a ban.
If the government accepts the committee’s recommendations, it would bring Victoria into line with South Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland, which have all banned duck hunting.
However, some Labor MPs have expressed concern such a move could cause tension with some multicultural communities who partake in the practice and several of their affiliated unions, who made submissions to the inquiry calling for the generational tradition to continue.
An alliance of trade unions, known as the Building Industry Group of Unions, last week endorsed a resolution to walk off job sites if Victoria decides to ban duck hunting.
The group, which includes the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, the CFMEU, Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and the plumbers’ union, represents more than 85,000 Victorian workers, many of whom on government infrastructure projects such as the Metro Tunnel, North East Link and West Gate Tunnel.
The resolution also vowed to ban Labor MPs from Big Build projects and reconsider whether they work overtime on the project sites.
In another resolution, dated 17 August, the Building Industry Group of Unions claimed the government had “done a deal” with the Animal Justice party.
The unions have conducted surveys to their members and distributed flyers at mass meetings, seen by Guardian Australia, which claim the Animal Justice party will move to ban all forms of hunting, as well as fishing, boating and camping.
One flyer states the party will push for a ban “cured processed meats” before ultimately ending “all types of farming for meat”.
Purcell accused the union of misrepresenting her party’s policies and urged them to focus on “real issues” that matter to members.
“I’m a proud union member and former union official, and I’ve never seen such a blatant waste of member resources. The campaign being run by the BIG is a result of members being misled and deceived that other forms of outdoor recreation are at risk,” she said.
Troy Gray, secretary of the ETU, said “being union is much more than wages and conditions”, citing campaigns against apartheid and in support of Medicare, the NDIS and superannuation.
“In 1856, Victorian building workers downed tools for eight hours of work, eight hours of rest and eights hours of recreation. It is that working-class recreation that is in the balance here,” he said.
Guardian Australia has spoken to eight Labor MPs on the condition of anonymity who have expressed conflicting views on the matter. Some remain steadfast in their support of a ban while have described the committee as working towards a “pre-determined outcome”.
“It was clearly a stitch-up,” one said. “There wasn’t a lot of deliberation or thought given to different ways of reducing wounding, like changing the licensing arrangements, improving enforcement and training, having First Nations people involved in the land management,” another said.
One MP noted “the vast majority” of unions were focused on other issues.
“It’s a bizarre hill to die on,” they said.
