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MELBOURNE - Victorian Premier Steve Bracks has been accused of wasting A$200,000 ($230,202) of taxpayers' money in an effort to teach duck hunters to shoot more accurately.
Coalition Against Duck Shooting campaign director Laurie Levy said today the money had funded a visit from United States duck shooter and ballistics expert Tom Roster, who is speaking with shooters in Victoria this weekend.
The allocation came despite the government's own animal welfare advisory committee repeatedly recommending that duck shooting be banned because of cruelty, Mr Levy said.
"The Bracks government is finally acknowledging that waterbird wounding rates are unacceptable during duck-shooting seasons," Mr Levy said in a statement.
"But instead of heeding the public's calls to ban this outdated activity, Bracks has allocated A$200,000 of taxpayers' money in an attempt to teach Victoria's dwindling number of duck shooters to shoot accurately.
"Instead of pandering to duck shooters and wasting taxpayers' money on a dying activity, the Bracks government should immediately ban duck shooting."
Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland have already banned the recreational shooting of native waterbirds.
A 2003 ACNielsen poll showed 70 per cent of Victorians wanted Victoria to follow suit, Mr Levy said.
"Waterbirds are declining worldwide," he said.
"It is not only ridiculous but extremely irresponsible of the Bracks government to pour taxpayers' money into encouraging the destruction of even more native waterbirds just so Victoria's few remaining duck shooters can get their thrills."
- AAP
