Although all native birds are protected by law, for three months annually (usually commencing in late March) six species of our beautiful sentient Australian native waterbirds are classified as ‘game’ and can be legally shot and abused in Victoria, purely for recreational purposes.

Climate change and overshooting have already forced two species of once plentiful native waterbirds, the Australasian Blue-winged Shoveler and the Hardhead, to be removed from the shooters game list and declared threatened species.

Other so-called game species presently on the duck shooters hit list, especially Chestnut Teal and Pink-eared ducks, will also need to be removed from the game list and declared threatened.

The mistake that governments continue to make is that instead of respecting and protecting Australia’s magnificent native waterbirds when their numbers are plentiful – they wait until shooters have reduced the numbers to the point where species need to be declared threatened. And a process then begins where millions of dollars will be spent to save the species from extinction.