The usual practice of Victoria’s Game Management Authority (GMA) is to publish the compliance data from the first five days of the Victorian duck season as soon as it is available. In fact, the most recent Statement of Ministerial Expectations to the GMA requires them to do just that.
“Where possible and appropriate, I expect the GMA to publish information about the outcome of its compliance efforts. This may help to deter further non-compliant behaviours and provide assurance to the community that the GMA is fulfilling its regulatory functions.”
On Tuesday morning (2 May), in line with the clear, written expectations of the Government, the GMA published on its website the compliance data from the first five days of the 2023 Victorian duck season. SSAA Victoria became aware that the data was live at around 10.30 am. By 11.00 am, that data had been removed. However, a couple of “breadcrumbs” remained on the GMA website as a testament to that fact (an asterisk indicating which offences were “Protestor related” and a date stamp showing when the page had been modified).
The page was modified again on 3 May to remove the “Protestor related” reference.
So, who didn’t want the public to see something, what is it that they didn’t want the public to see, and why didn’t they want the public to see it?
The “who” is relatively easy to narrow down. As an independent statutory authority, very few people have the power to make the GMA take action contrary to the stated Ministerial expectations. In a practical sense, it is only really the current Minister who could order the GMA to ignore a previously stated Ministerial Expectation.
What is it that they didn’t want the public to see? Fortunately, a diligent member of the hunting community took screenshots of the compliance data before it was suppressed.
The data shows an impressive compliance effort by GMA and its partners and a high level of compliance by hunters. Less than 1% were detected committing a serious hunting-related offence, and 2% were detected committing less serious hunting-related offences. The data also showed a statistically similar rate of serious offending amongst the protestors, including an instance of a protestor failing to immediately kill game which was alive when recovered.
Why didn’t the Victorian Government want the public to see this data? That is something that we can only speculate on. The Minister for Outdoor Recreation has been asked that question; however, we do not expect an answer any time soon. The suppression of the data did coincide with the staging of a media event at Treasury Place by the protestor group the Coalition against duck shooting (CADS). In light of CADS’ regular posturing about hunters acting illegally, the publication of objective data, both showing that narrative to be false and highlighting a level of illegal behaviour by CADS members and supporters, would be inconvenient for some.
Thank you to the diligent hunter who screenshotted the data before it was suppressed. Democracy dies in darkness.
