The following open letter was published in The Herald Sun and The Age on June 8th, 2026:
Who’s really calling the shots in Victoria?
A government regulator stands accused of serious misconduct. Rather than address it, the Allan Government is passing a law that protects it.
There is a simple test of any government’s integrity: what does it do when one of its own agencies is caught failing the public? Well, Victorians are about to find out.
The Game Management Authority — the taxpayer-funded body charged with regulating recreational duck shooting — is again the subject of serious allegations from whistleblowers and former staff, including claims of bias, bullying and malfeasance.
Its officers have been recorded using the phrase “us hunters” when addressing pro-shooting events and have publicly stated they would not fine unlicensed children on the wetlands. Meanwhile, the GMA has posted photos and home locations of wildlife rescuers on its government Facebook page — leading to death threats — while fining those same rescuers for entering wetlands to help injured birds.
A regulator that promotes the activity it is meant to police is not a regulator at all. It is a fox put in charge of the hen house.
None of this is new. In fact, the government was warned.
In 2017, the Pegasus Review found serious governance failures within the GMA and a fundamental conflict of interest in an agency asked to both regulate and promote shooting. Its central recommendation was clear: strip the GMA of its regulatory role. The Government rejected it. Nine years on, little has changed — except that the warnings have been vindicated.
Again in 2023, the government ignored recommendations from its own inquiry, which confirmed systemic failures in a flawed regulator and called for duck shooting to be banned. Labor MPs described the decision not to act as a ‘captain’s call’ by Premier Jacinta Allan — one that was at odds with her own party, and with the thousands of Victorians who made submissions.
And now, the Allan Government is moving to expand the GMA’s authority through the Outdoor Recreation Bill — giving a discredited, conflicted body even greater powers.
The name of this Bill deserves scrutiny. “Outdoor Recreation” suggests bushwalking, hiking, camping — the things most Victorians do when they spend time in nature. But a primary beneficiary of this legislation is an activity that fewer than 0.1% of Victorians participate in — duck shooting. Most Victorians will never have heard of the GMA, let alone benefit from expanding its authority. They deserve to know that a Bill being passed in their name has very little to do with them — and is empowering a regulator that has repeatedly failed to do its job.
All the while, the scale of harm is significant.
Last year, an estimated half a million native birds were killed in a single season — not counting the one in four birds shot and left to suffer. Five of the eight duck species the Government permits to be shot are in long-term decline. The GMA’s own survey found that many licensed shooters cannot identify protected species, do not understand their welfare obligations, and are unaware of basic safety rules.
These are not the failings of a few bad actors. They are systemic — and the GMA has shown it cannot, or will not, fix them.
This is not a debate about whether you support duck shooting. It is a question of whether a government accused of protecting a conflicted agency should further embed that protection into law.
Because that’s exactly what the Outdoor Recreation Bill will do.
We call on the Premier to scrap the Outdoor Recreation Bill, remove the GMA’s regulatory authority over recreational duck shooting and hand it to a genuinely independent body — exactly as her own Government was advised to do nine years ago.
Independent oversight of firearm use on public wetlands is not an unreasonable demand. It is a fundamental requirement that Victorians are entitled to expect.
Glenys Oogjes
CEO, Animals Australia
2024 Victorian Senior Australian of the Year
