1
00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:13,720
Speaker 1: From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana.

2
00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:17,799
Speaker 2: This is Col's Week in Review with Ryan cal Kalang.

3
00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:23,720
Speaker 1: Here's Cal. Hey, there're Cal's Week in Review listeners. We

4
00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:28,560
Speaker 1: have a special drop this week, getting back on some

5
00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:31,720
Speaker 1: of our interviews that we told you we'd get back

6
00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:34,280
Speaker 1: on because you love them, and we have one that

7
00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:38,040
Speaker 1: we've been working on for a really long time. Lucas Cook,

8
00:00:38,159 --> 00:00:43,559
Speaker 1: who is the CEO of Field and Game. If you

9
00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:48,600
Speaker 1: haven't heard of that, it's because they're based in Australia.

10
00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:52,760
Speaker 1: In a way, I heard about them through my friend

11
00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:59,040
Speaker 1: Natalie Krebs, who's a fantastic writer over there. At was

12
00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:01,160
Speaker 1: you writing for Outdoor Life for Field and Stream for

13
00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:02,760
Speaker 1: that article, Lucas?

14
00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:04,759
Speaker 2: That was an Outdoor Life article?

15
00:01:04,840 --> 00:01:10,039
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So Natalie went over to Australia and she

16
00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:15,840
Speaker 1: went over to waterfowl hunt. Sounds super awesome, but there

17
00:01:15,959 --> 00:01:22,840
Speaker 1: was a devious plan afoot by Natalie to expose this

18
00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:29,320
Speaker 1: really crazy to us freedom love and Americans plot to

19
00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:35,400
Speaker 1: intimidate harass hunters, law biting hunters who are just going

20
00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:45,040
Speaker 1: out to enjoy hunting by activists, animal protectionists, or just

21
00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:47,680
Speaker 1: folks who don't have enough to do and want to

22
00:01:47,720 --> 00:01:50,520
Speaker 1: pick a fight with somebody who's doing something legal. Now,

23
00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:54,200
Speaker 1: before we get into that, because I'm gonna have ask you, Lucas,

24
00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:58,320
Speaker 1: to just explain your organization and your role as CEO.

25
00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:05,560
Speaker 1: But I need to introduce Jordan Sellers here. As everybody

26
00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:09,880
Speaker 1: knows by now, Jordan is the backbone of the podcast.

27
00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:13,240
Speaker 1: He's doing the research and the writing every single week,

28
00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:17,919
Speaker 1: week in and week out, and he's with us today

29
00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:23,880
Speaker 1: and he's gonna jump on with some good questions. And Jordan,

30
00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:26,840
Speaker 1: are you familiar with all of this? Have you got

31
00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:27,560
Speaker 1: up to speed on?

32
00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:28,680
Speaker 2: Yeah?

33
00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:32,520
Speaker 3: I mean because we've we've covered issues. I know, we

34
00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:36,480
Speaker 3: have a number of listeners who hail from Australia who

35
00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:39,360
Speaker 3: very helpfully send us kind of what's going on and

36
00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:42,440
Speaker 3: keep us in the loop. So yeah, we've we've covered

37
00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:45,280
Speaker 3: these issues a number of times on the podcast, and

38
00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:48,800
Speaker 3: so I'm very excited to kind of hear it from

39
00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:51,919
Speaker 3: the horse's mouth. I think Lucas is gonna gonna be

40
00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:53,520
Speaker 3: able to fill us in very well.

41
00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:57,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, and just recently, it's very timely because just recently

42
00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:02,280
Speaker 1: we got a couple of articles in our way that

43
00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:05,440
Speaker 1: outline I think what we're going to hear from Lucas

44
00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:11,480
Speaker 1: here shortly of legal hunting and where the rights of

45
00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:17,920
Speaker 1: the hunter and the rights of a non hunter collide. Where,

46
00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:21,640
Speaker 1: for instance, a person is sitting in a tree stand

47
00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:27,280
Speaker 1: on private property, a person who wishes to disrupt that

48
00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:30,840
Speaker 1: hunt is on the other side of the property line.

49
00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:34,560
Speaker 1: Both have legal access to their individual pieces of property.

50
00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:39,680
Speaker 1: But that person on the other side of the line

51
00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:43,480
Speaker 1: is you know, ruining the hunting opportunity the day of

52
00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:49,720
Speaker 1: the hunter. How do we resolve that situation? It is

53
00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:57,200
Speaker 1: hunter harassment, But where does the private property rights of

54
00:03:57,240 --> 00:04:04,600
Speaker 1: the harasser stop? And where do the those hunter harassment

55
00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:08,760
Speaker 1: laws which are very hard to enforce, where do those

56
00:04:08,920 --> 00:04:12,840
Speaker 1: actually kick in? And you know, we'll have this conversation

57
00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:16,200
Speaker 1: of knowing where you're in the right and and what

58
00:04:16,279 --> 00:04:21,120
Speaker 1: you need to do in order to prove that. And unfortunately,

59
00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:25,520
Speaker 1: as we'll learn here from from Lucas, there's some you know,

60
00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:28,000
Speaker 1: it's like, if you've ever taken a first aid class,

61
00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:32,360
Speaker 1: you don't just learn about saving somebody's life through CPR

62
00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:34,880
Speaker 1: and first aid. You got to sit through a whole

63
00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:39,280
Speaker 1: day of how to not get sued. And there's going

64
00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:44,039
Speaker 1: to be some of that here too. So without further ado, Lucas,

65
00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:46,200
Speaker 1: who are you, what do you do and who do

66
00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:46,840
Speaker 1: you represent?

67
00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:49,760
Speaker 2: Thanks keV, Yeah, thanks for having men, thanks to the

68
00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:52,560
Speaker 2: opportunity to come on and speak to yourself and your listeners.

69
00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:55,080
Speaker 2: So yeah, my name's Lucas Cook on the CEO of

70
00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:58,359
Speaker 2: Field and Game Australia, which puts me on in charge

71
00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:03,279
Speaker 2: of an organization that's represents duck hunters all across Australia.

72
00:05:04,839 --> 00:05:08,440
Speaker 2: Long and proud history at Field and Game Australia. I

73
00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:11,240
Speaker 2: took too while, I mean talking to a lot of

74
00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:14,919
Speaker 2: us allies and friends over there. I think the quickest

75
00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:16,760
Speaker 2: way I've found of explaining is to say, Field and

76
00:05:16,760 --> 00:05:19,039
Speaker 2: Game Australia are the closest thing Australia has to a

77
00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:24,520
Speaker 2: Delta waterfowl. We are founded on very similar foundation as Delta.

78
00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:27,320
Speaker 2: We're a conservation group. We came into being back in

79
00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:31,799
Speaker 2: the nineteen fifties when Australia duck hunting or duck habitat

80
00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:34,920
Speaker 2: was under threat and therefore duck hunting, Field and Game

81
00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:38,520
Speaker 2: was formed on that similar premise of preserving habitat and

82
00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:43,960
Speaker 2: preserving hunting through preservation of habitat, long history that we

83
00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:46,080
Speaker 2: don't need to go into two most detail here, but

84
00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:49,120
Speaker 2: Field and Game drove the founding of an Australian duck

85
00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:52,600
Speaker 2: stamp process, conservation money going into coffers that could then

86
00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:55,440
Speaker 2: be spent on the purchase of public land to create

87
00:05:56,240 --> 00:05:58,800
Speaker 2: what we have as state game reserves and public hunting

88
00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:02,599
Speaker 2: reserves all over the state and the country. That's where

89
00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:05,280
Speaker 2: we came from and that's still largely what we do.

90
00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:08,640
Speaker 2: Field and Game Australia have muddied the waters a little bit.

91
00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:10,719
Speaker 2: And then we do also have a third pillar of

92
00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:15,400
Speaker 2: clay target hunting. We specifically do Australian simulated field clay

93
00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:18,279
Speaker 2: target shooting that keeps hunters in practice in the off

94
00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:23,760
Speaker 2: season as well. But yeah, we operate that sporting discipline

95
00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:26,760
Speaker 2: and represent duck hunters and all hunters across the country

96
00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:29,839
Speaker 2: as well as being involved in conservation and land management

97
00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:31,000
Speaker 2: aspects as well.

98
00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:35,039
Speaker 1: A good building block and certainly something that Natalie did

99
00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:39,920
Speaker 1: over there at Outdoor Life. You should track down that article.

100
00:06:40,279 --> 00:06:44,560
Speaker 1: It's very good and it's very timely again because we're

101
00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:47,680
Speaker 1: heading into the real bulk, the meat and potatoes of

102
00:06:47,720 --> 00:06:51,840
Speaker 1: our waterfowl season here in North America. What does it

103
00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:57,120
Speaker 1: take to be a legal hunter and on a firearm

104
00:06:57,200 --> 00:07:01,000
Speaker 1: in Australia.

105
00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:03,120
Speaker 2: So we do have some processes we need to go through.

106
00:07:03,480 --> 00:07:08,400
Speaker 2: So the firearm license acquisition process in Australia is a

107
00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:11,440
Speaker 2: little bit more lengthy than what some listeners would be

108
00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:16,120
Speaker 2: used to, but it's a regulatory framework or process. It's

109
00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:19,200
Speaker 2: not impossible to have a firearm and you can do it,

110
00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:24,360
Speaker 2: but there's safety courses and background checks and withholding periods

111
00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:26,800
Speaker 2: and things that need to happen in the first place

112
00:07:26,920 --> 00:07:29,280
Speaker 2: just to get a firearms license in the first place.

113
00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:32,000
Speaker 2: And one of the big parts of that process is

114
00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:35,280
Speaker 2: there is a requirement in Australia that you have you

115
00:07:35,320 --> 00:07:38,920
Speaker 2: can demonstrate a genuine need to own a firearm. So

116
00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:41,760
Speaker 2: we don't have the protected right that we can own

117
00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:44,239
Speaker 2: a firearm just for the sake of owning a firearm.

118
00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:46,720
Speaker 2: We actually need to prove that we have a genuine

119
00:07:46,760 --> 00:07:50,760
Speaker 2: reason to need that firearm. And really importantly, self defense

120
00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:53,760
Speaker 2: is not seen as a genuine reason in Australia, so

121
00:07:53,800 --> 00:07:55,440
Speaker 2: you actually have to have a connection to be able

122
00:07:55,440 --> 00:08:00,239
Speaker 2: to show you're involved in hunting, target sports or an

123
00:08:00,280 --> 00:08:03,239
Speaker 2: agricultural reason to have a firearm in the first place.

124
00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:07,000
Speaker 2: So that's certainly where organizations like ours, like Field and

125
00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:08,880
Speaker 2: Game Australia. So being a member of Field and Game

126
00:08:08,880 --> 00:08:11,120
Speaker 2: Australia does fulfill the need of you being able to

127
00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:13,520
Speaker 2: show I have a genuine need to have a firearm

128
00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:16,400
Speaker 2: because I'm involved in this organization. I hunt those shoot targets,

129
00:08:16,440 --> 00:08:20,080
Speaker 2: those sorts of things. But that's certainly one of the

130
00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:24,600
Speaker 2: much more restrictive aspects of that for us. Then as

131
00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:27,040
Speaker 2: far as becoming a legal hunter, you obviously head into

132
00:08:27,040 --> 00:08:28,800
Speaker 2: the realms of depending on what you want to hunt,

133
00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:32,920
Speaker 2: having to to have different licenses that are enable you

134
00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:35,720
Speaker 2: to hunt on public land or permissions to hunt private land,

135
00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:41,840
Speaker 2: and also have game licenses for the specific species you're hunting.

136
00:08:42,440 --> 00:08:46,120
Speaker 1: As far as like ease goes, like how long does

137
00:08:46,160 --> 00:08:48,000
Speaker 1: the process take if you want to get a new

138
00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:53,120
Speaker 1: hunter onboarded into the field you know, and have them

139
00:08:53,160 --> 00:08:54,640
Speaker 1: possess a firearm.

140
00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:58,800
Speaker 2: So en be quite lengthy for a brand new person

141
00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:02,760
Speaker 2: to receive their firearm license. Is using differs a bit

142
00:09:02,800 --> 00:09:04,800
Speaker 2: state to state, but Victoria at the moment it's around

143
00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:07,400
Speaker 2: a twelve week process just to get a firearm license

144
00:09:07,559 --> 00:09:10,839
Speaker 2: application processed. So once you've done all the paperwork, the

145
00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:13,600
Speaker 2: safety course, you've got your genuine reason. You've got your

146
00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:16,480
Speaker 2: permission slips to hunt private land, all of those sorts

147
00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:19,040
Speaker 2: of things when you get out of that in place. Yeah,

148
00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:23,000
Speaker 2: it's currently it's been as long as six months. It's

149
00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:25,679
Speaker 2: back in now to they're processing those applications, I think

150
00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:28,440
Speaker 2: in around twelve to sixteen weeks. But it certainly is.

151
00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:30,599
Speaker 2: You know, we're telling people now if they want to

152
00:09:30,679 --> 00:09:33,120
Speaker 2: hunt the next game bird season next March, they really

153
00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:36,040
Speaker 2: need to have their license applications in now to make

154
00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:37,679
Speaker 2: sure that they're going to have the time to do that.

155
00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:40,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can't just run down to the gas station

156
00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:44,600
Speaker 1: or wal Mart and be ready to go that day exactly.

157
00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:46,040
Speaker 2: That's right. You can't get a call from a mate

158
00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:47,400
Speaker 2: to say, hey, do you want to come hunting next

159
00:09:47,440 --> 00:09:49,719
Speaker 2: week and get everything in order and be able to

160
00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:50,079
Speaker 2: do that.

161
00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:57,720
Speaker 1: So now you're in the field. Obviously, this historical reference

162
00:09:57,720 --> 00:10:01,400
Speaker 1: now that we have occurred during opening day of waterfowl

163
00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:05,040
Speaker 1: season last year or two years ago now. But what

164
00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:10,440
Speaker 1: you're dealing with is this would be like if hunting

165
00:10:10,440 --> 00:10:16,360
Speaker 1: and fishing rights became so contentious here in North America,

166
00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:21,560
Speaker 1: in my point of view, like greatly accelerated a future

167
00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:24,640
Speaker 1: version like a dystopian version of hunting and fishing is

168
00:10:24,679 --> 00:10:30,040
Speaker 1: what was kind of painted in Australia, where you get

169
00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:34,480
Speaker 1: up early, you head out to your public waterfowl spot,

170
00:10:35,240 --> 00:10:39,560
Speaker 1: and not only are you competing with other hunters for

171
00:10:40,360 --> 00:10:45,440
Speaker 1: good hunting spots, but you're showing up with the knowledge

172
00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:51,600
Speaker 1: that there very well could be activists flaring birds like

173
00:10:51,800 --> 00:10:57,120
Speaker 1: out in the marsh with you, disrupting your hunt. Correct,

174
00:10:57,520 --> 00:10:58,240
Speaker 1: that's right.

175
00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:03,880
Speaker 2: And I think the the key thing that's been communicated

176
00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:07,160
Speaker 2: while we've been sort of pursuing what we've been going

177
00:11:07,160 --> 00:11:09,280
Speaker 2: through down here in Australia and talking to people in

178
00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:13,560
Speaker 2: the US is there's a certain sense of disbelief when

179
00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:16,200
Speaker 2: our American hunters hear about this and they look at

180
00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:19,160
Speaker 2: it and go, oh, that could never happen here. And

181
00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:21,960
Speaker 2: what we've been communicating is, well, yeah, that's what we

182
00:11:22,040 --> 00:11:25,000
Speaker 2: thought twenty years ago as well, or ten years ago

183
00:11:25,120 --> 00:11:28,760
Speaker 2: or five years ago. So what we've seen in Australia

184
00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:35,000
Speaker 2: is a process where the ideological animal protectionists have been

185
00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:38,840
Speaker 2: around for a long while, but they've certainly been progressively

186
00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:45,000
Speaker 2: emboldened and enabled to be more and more disruptive. And

187
00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:46,960
Speaker 2: so whilst a lot of people go oh, well, that

188
00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:49,360
Speaker 2: could never happen here. So ten years ago, when they

189
00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:51,760
Speaker 2: were protesting in the car parks at the water that land,

190
00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:53,200
Speaker 2: we thought, oh, well, that's all right, they're in the

191
00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:56,320
Speaker 2: car park, they'll never be in the water. And then

192
00:11:56,559 --> 00:12:00,720
Speaker 2: and behold, the right to access public life and the

193
00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:04,600
Speaker 2: right of a citizen to protest was seen by our

194
00:12:04,640 --> 00:12:07,319
Speaker 2: regulators as just as important for an anti hunter as

195
00:12:07,320 --> 00:12:10,920
Speaker 2: it is for a hunter. And so progressively, these these

196
00:12:10,960 --> 00:12:15,839
Speaker 2: anti these protesters have been able to become progressively more

197
00:12:15,840 --> 00:12:17,920
Speaker 2: and more and more disruptive, until the point where we

198
00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:22,360
Speaker 2: get to this seemingly this believable position where you can

199
00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:26,960
Speaker 2: see activists protesters within ten meters of a hunter in

200
00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:30,040
Speaker 2: the wetland, so standing just outside your decoys bread or

201
00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:33,440
Speaker 2: even in your decoy spread. The legislation only requires that

202
00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:37,319
Speaker 2: they stay ten meters away from a hunter, and they

203
00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:40,440
Speaker 2: can be in the wetland, in the water, flaring birds,

204
00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:44,559
Speaker 2: waving flags, blowing whistles, all of these crazy things, and

205
00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:47,720
Speaker 2: protected in doing that by their right to protest.

206
00:12:48,800 --> 00:12:54,280
Speaker 1: What's an average example of this versus an extreme example

207
00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:54,679
Speaker 1: of this?

208
00:12:55,320 --> 00:12:58,440
Speaker 2: So I should say so the really extreme examples we

209
00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:03,880
Speaker 2: see are just that they are extreme examples, when you

210
00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:08,679
Speaker 2: see the crowds of orange vest wearing flag waving protesters

211
00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:13,440
Speaker 2: in wetlands in Victoria and opening morning, that's maybe taking

212
00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:16,640
Speaker 2: place in five or six of our wetlands, and there

213
00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:21,160
Speaker 2: are hundreds of hunterable wetlands all over the state. But

214
00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:26,240
Speaker 2: the activists are obviously switched on enough that they do

215
00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:28,960
Speaker 2: that in the most popular hunting places as well, so

216
00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:33,080
Speaker 2: that the conflict between hunters and activists on opening mornings,

217
00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:35,040
Speaker 2: it's only happening in a few places, but it's happening

218
00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:39,200
Speaker 2: in the most densely populated places. We do have the advantage,

219
00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:41,439
Speaker 2: obviously when there is plenty of water and plenty of

220
00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:45,319
Speaker 2: wetlands with water and ducks, as we have seen in

221
00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:48,079
Speaker 2: the last few years, that hunters can spread out. And

222
00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:51,080
Speaker 2: obviously if the hunters are dispersed enough and not hunting

223
00:13:51,160 --> 00:13:54,080
Speaker 2: in those popular spaces, it is still well and truly

224
00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:56,640
Speaker 2: true that you can go out an opening morning and

225
00:13:56,679 --> 00:14:00,720
Speaker 2: not see a protester. So we do have we do

226
00:14:00,800 --> 00:14:03,320
Speaker 2: have plenty of opportunities to hunt without being interfered with

227
00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:07,000
Speaker 2: by these protester groups, but certainly they know in the

228
00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:10,120
Speaker 2: areas where they frequent, and our National Office for Field

229
00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:12,120
Speaker 2: and game now now sits on the edge of an

230
00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:17,240
Speaker 2: eighteen thousand hectare wetland system or network, but it just

231
00:14:17,559 --> 00:14:20,160
Speaker 2: it also means that network is within an hour or

232
00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:23,200
Speaker 2: so's drive of two major cities. So it's very hard

233
00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:26,560
Speaker 2: to hunt anywhere on this eighteen thousand hectare wetland without

234
00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:30,280
Speaker 2: being interfered with by a protester during that opening morning

235
00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:33,480
Speaker 2: or those times when they are most active. So there's

236
00:14:33,480 --> 00:14:35,960
Speaker 2: certainly areas where you can't go out without seeing one,

237
00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:37,680
Speaker 2: but there are areas where you can still get out

238
00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:38,800
Speaker 2: and hunt alone as well.

239
00:14:39,200 --> 00:14:43,680
Speaker 3: Just to jump in. Are there similar protests of big

240
00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:48,680
Speaker 3: game hunters, predator hunters or is this kind of restricted

241
00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:50,560
Speaker 3: to waterfowl so.

242
00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:53,880
Speaker 2: We have seen we have seen some limited attempts of

243
00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:57,240
Speaker 2: protesters to interfere with those other hunt types. But again,

244
00:14:57,320 --> 00:15:00,480
Speaker 2: the nature of waterfowl hunting and the concert and tration

245
00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:03,440
Speaker 2: of hunters into areas where there are water and birds

246
00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:06,680
Speaker 2: certainly makes it a lot easier for them to interfere

247
00:15:06,680 --> 00:15:08,920
Speaker 2: with this type of hunting more so than any other type.

248
00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:12,840
Speaker 2: Some of our idea hunting that has you know, the

249
00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:15,880
Speaker 2: requirements for how to come through checkpoints or filter points

250
00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:17,960
Speaker 2: with their tagged animals and those sorts of things certainly

251
00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:21,520
Speaker 2: do see some protesting as well, But waterfowl hunting is

252
00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:24,800
Speaker 2: certainly the one that presents the opportunity for protesters to

253
00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:26,160
Speaker 2: be the most disruptive.

254
00:15:27,160 --> 00:15:30,000
Speaker 1: Just to take a step back and kind of paint

255
00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:32,880
Speaker 1: the picture a little more deeply, But I guess you

256
00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:37,640
Speaker 1: and hunters in general have to adapt. You have to

257
00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:43,280
Speaker 1: adapt your hunt plan to avoid popular waterfowl spots because

258
00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:48,520
Speaker 1: the likelihood of somebody ruining your time and effort is

259
00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:57,360
Speaker 1: so high, and they are protected by regulations, this right

260
00:15:57,400 --> 00:16:03,920
Speaker 1: to protest. Why isn't there some help on that regulation side,

261
00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:07,920
Speaker 1: the law enforcement side that says, okay, this has gone

262
00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:08,440
Speaker 1: too far.

263
00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:12,440
Speaker 2: That's that's certainly something we've we've been pushing for, and

264
00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:15,600
Speaker 2: again just in this latest season, so we have seen

265
00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:19,920
Speaker 2: an improvement in enforcement of the rules that do restrict

266
00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:24,200
Speaker 2: exactly what the protesters can do. So the the the

267
00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:27,600
Speaker 2: within the legislation, the easiest thing for the hunting regulator

268
00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:30,200
Speaker 2: to to enact on these protesters when they are out

269
00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:32,160
Speaker 2: of line or overstepping this is what we call a

270
00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:35,120
Speaker 2: banning notice, which is essentially a notice requiring them to

271
00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:37,560
Speaker 2: leave that wetland and not re enter the wetland again.

272
00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:40,920
Speaker 2: And we did see in the last twelve months we've

273
00:16:40,920 --> 00:16:44,760
Speaker 2: sent a dramatic spike in those banning notices being issued

274
00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:49,120
Speaker 2: to protests that were clearly in that wetland for no

275
00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:53,000
Speaker 2: other reason other than to disrupt and hinder hunts. But

276
00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:57,520
Speaker 2: again they've they've very craftily worked around that aspect within

277
00:16:57,600 --> 00:17:01,080
Speaker 2: the legislation where where that's public, they are a member

278
00:17:01,080 --> 00:17:03,200
Speaker 2: of the public and therefore they can be on that

279
00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:06,240
Speaker 2: public land and they have the right to protest, which

280
00:17:06,280 --> 00:17:08,960
Speaker 2: means that they can where their orange and wave their

281
00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:11,600
Speaker 2: flags and those sorts of things. But there has been

282
00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:16,800
Speaker 2: a shift back towards probably doing at least a little

283
00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:19,760
Speaker 2: bit to protect hunters. But you're dead right go when

284
00:17:19,760 --> 00:17:22,159
Speaker 2: you say it from a hunter's point of view, you

285
00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:24,800
Speaker 2: really are planning your hunt in a way that goes, Okay,

286
00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:26,840
Speaker 2: we know if we go to this swamp, we are

287
00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:29,560
Speaker 2: almost definitely going to run into protest us at the

288
00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:32,040
Speaker 2: boat ramp. Have we got our boat that's fast enough

289
00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:33,760
Speaker 2: to get us out far enough that they won't be

290
00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:35,160
Speaker 2: able to find us for a while, and we'll get

291
00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:38,560
Speaker 2: a hunting. Those sorts of things definitely come into it.

292
00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:42,680
Speaker 2: So there wetlands where hunters just go, Look, if I'm

293
00:17:42,680 --> 00:17:44,320
Speaker 2: walking out from the shore, I'm just not going to

294
00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:46,399
Speaker 2: hunt that wetland in the first week of the season

295
00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:48,680
Speaker 2: because we know there's going to be too many protesters there.

296
00:17:50,680 --> 00:17:52,600
Speaker 2: It's definitely a thing that plays on the mind of

297
00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:56,240
Speaker 2: all Victorian duck hunters, Australian duck hunters that they go, ok,

298
00:17:57,040 --> 00:17:58,720
Speaker 2: before I head out, what am I going to think about?

299
00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:01,919
Speaker 2: Where am I going to go? We have some good spots.

300
00:18:01,920 --> 00:18:03,600
Speaker 2: So we have a team from Field and Game Australia

301
00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:06,040
Speaker 2: right now that are hunting in the Northern Territory and

302
00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:09,399
Speaker 2: they don't experience the same problems up there because largely

303
00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:14,000
Speaker 2: because they've got saltwater crocodiles in their waterway, so that

304
00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:20,480
Speaker 2: keeps the protesters out of the water pretty effectively. But yeah,

305
00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:23,200
Speaker 2: it's definitely something in the Southern States that affects all

306
00:18:23,280 --> 00:18:25,520
Speaker 2: hands to go, well, before I head out, where am

307
00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:27,720
Speaker 2: I going? You know, we see social media and those

308
00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:30,600
Speaker 2: sorts of things. We certainly see hunters sharing information that

309
00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:33,080
Speaker 2: protesters have been spotted at this swamp this morning. Don't

310
00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:33,440
Speaker 2: go there.

311
00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:38,919
Speaker 1: Those sorts of things, which unfortunately is kind of like

312
00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:42,600
Speaker 1: what you said, right like twenty years ago, you thought, oh,

313
00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:48,520
Speaker 1: this won't matter, and now you're unfortunately kind of giving

314
00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:50,680
Speaker 1: them exactly what they want. They want you to stay

315
00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:55,239
Speaker 1: out of the marsh, and most sane people are going

316
00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:59,359
Speaker 1: to find a different marsh because that's not what you

317
00:18:59,359 --> 00:18:59,960
Speaker 1: want to do with you.

318
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:04,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, if there's hunters hunting opening morning in the geelong

319
00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:07,399
Speaker 2: of the honorary wetland system that we are situated on

320
00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:09,920
Speaker 2: right now that I've spoken about, if you're a hunter

321
00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:12,239
Speaker 2: or you're on that wetland on opening morning, you can

322
00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:14,800
Speaker 2: pretty well guarantee you doing that as a sort of

323
00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:19,440
Speaker 2: designated decoy role. If you're like, you're sacrificing your possible

324
00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:22,280
Speaker 2: opening morning hunt are going We know we're going to

325
00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:24,280
Speaker 2: go down here. We are going to be harassed, we

326
00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:26,480
Speaker 2: are going to have to run the gauntlet of protesters.

327
00:19:26,480 --> 00:19:28,399
Speaker 2: We are going to do that. But why they're bothering me?

328
00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:32,040
Speaker 2: At least they're not bothering anybody else. And you know,

329
00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:35,439
Speaker 2: I had the experience this opening morning of talking to

330
00:19:36,359 --> 00:19:39,000
Speaker 2: several hunters on this wetland that we're taking exactly that approach.

331
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:40,480
Speaker 2: So there were five or six hundreds who came in

332
00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:42,439
Speaker 2: and said, look, probably not going to get a bird,

333
00:19:42,840 --> 00:19:45,080
Speaker 2: but if you get one bird in front of all

334
00:19:45,119 --> 00:19:47,680
Speaker 2: of these protesters and during all that process, that bird's

335
00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:50,439
Speaker 2: worth ten anyway, just to be able to fly the

336
00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:52,920
Speaker 2: flag and go yep, we ran the gauntlet and we

337
00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:57,239
Speaker 2: got a bird. And I had that exact experience this

338
00:19:57,320 --> 00:19:59,920
Speaker 2: year myself. Okay, I managed to go out. We absolutely

339
00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:03,199
Speaker 2: protests in our decoys the entire hunt, but towards the end,

340
00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:04,680
Speaker 2: when we were just about to give up, we had

341
00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:07,000
Speaker 2: one bird that came into our decoy spread at a

342
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:09,879
Speaker 2: different angle, and we managed to get one bird and

343
00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:13,119
Speaker 2: three hunters in the boat. You've never seen three hunters

344
00:20:13,520 --> 00:20:15,560
Speaker 2: ride back to a boat ramp more triumphant to have

345
00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:19,080
Speaker 2: one bird in the boat. But yeah, you do. You

346
00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:20,960
Speaker 2: run that gauntlet and you go, well, we know we're

347
00:20:20,960 --> 00:20:22,680
Speaker 2: going to be harassed, but somebody has to do it,

348
00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:25,360
Speaker 2: and you're dead right. For the broader public, it leaves

349
00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:26,679
Speaker 2: a lot of people going, well, we're just not going

350
00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:29,760
Speaker 2: to hunt that wetland, which means in some ways the

351
00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:33,520
Speaker 2: activists have got their what they're what they're aiming for

352
00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:35,960
Speaker 2: in the first place. Obviously, what they're aiming for is

353
00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:39,879
Speaker 2: a band altogether, and there's also some pleasure to be

354
00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:41,919
Speaker 2: taken from a lot of these activists of express they

355
00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:45,960
Speaker 2: don't actually like being in the swamp so well, at

356
00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:47,960
Speaker 2: least by by dragging them as far out into the

357
00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:50,720
Speaker 2: wetland as we can and making them cold and wet

358
00:20:50,760 --> 00:20:52,880
Speaker 2: and miserable for their entire morning, you get a little

359
00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:57,240
Speaker 2: bit of revenge on them, perhaps. But yeah, certainly what

360
00:20:57,600 --> 00:21:01,440
Speaker 2: made me keen to share our ex experiences with people

361
00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:05,439
Speaker 2: in the US and over there is that exactly what

362
00:21:05,440 --> 00:21:07,960
Speaker 2: we've sort of spoked about ten twenty years ago. We thought, well,

363
00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:10,119
Speaker 2: it's a small problem, but it's you know, you just

364
00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:13,760
Speaker 2: ignore it and it will go away. And it certainly didn't.

365
00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:17,720
Speaker 2: It's escalated and get worse and worse. Which, Yeah, the

366
00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:19,600
Speaker 2: more I talk to people in America, the more they

367
00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:21,639
Speaker 2: say to me, I am that's never going to happen here.

368
00:21:21,640 --> 00:21:25,120
Speaker 2: And you're like, well, you know, you've got the activists there.

369
00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:29,720
Speaker 2: They have to what you spoke before, that they have

370
00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:33,000
Speaker 2: identified that they do have a right to protest, they

371
00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:35,720
Speaker 2: have a right to access this land that we certainly

372
00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:38,879
Speaker 2: are going to see. I think the conflict escalate there

373
00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:41,600
Speaker 2: as people test the boundaries of where to my rights

374
00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:44,000
Speaker 2: as a hunter, run into your rights as a member

375
00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:46,439
Speaker 2: of the public to access this land, to be on

376
00:21:46,520 --> 00:21:48,720
Speaker 2: this land, to exercise the different rights that you have

377
00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:53,000
Speaker 2: available to you. And I think the sooner you know,

378
00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:55,840
Speaker 2: the more proactive you can be about dressing those issues.

379
00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:59,119
Speaker 2: Hopefully you won't need to see the problem escalated as

380
00:21:59,119 --> 00:22:01,200
Speaker 2: far as it has in Australia before it could be addressed.

381
00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:06,919
Speaker 1: The reality is that economics come into play, right, So

382
00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:12,320
Speaker 1: if you're a hunter and you go, okay, well now

383
00:22:12,359 --> 00:22:15,720
Speaker 1: I can't or I don't want to deal with the

384
00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:21,119
Speaker 1: people at the close spots, I'll just drive farther. A

385
00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:24,800
Speaker 1: percentage of hunters can do that. But you know, I'll

386
00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:27,560
Speaker 1: tell you. Like my growing up, the cheapest I ever

387
00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:30,640
Speaker 1: saw gasoline in the state of Montana was ninety eight

388
00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:34,240
Speaker 1: cents a gallon and we'd drive one hundred miles one

389
00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:38,720
Speaker 1: way after school to go fish. We could do that,

390
00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:42,560
Speaker 1: gas jumps up to four and a half bucks a gallon.

391
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:48,480
Speaker 1: You're not doing that, And so by eliminating those wetlands

392
00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:51,400
Speaker 1: that are closer to the higher population areas, I think

393
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:54,520
Speaker 1: a case could be made that they are effectively not

394
00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:58,720
Speaker 1: ending a bird hunt, but ending a hunter or preventing

395
00:22:58,760 --> 00:23:04,760
Speaker 1: a hunter from even started, because the economics of making

396
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:10,040
Speaker 1: every trip a big adventure just don't work for everybody.

397
00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:13,920
Speaker 2: That's good, right, And as well as the economics, the

398
00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:17,080
Speaker 2: time factor as well. If you have a great wetland

399
00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:19,640
Speaker 2: that's holding great numbers of birds and it's a half

400
00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:21,920
Speaker 2: an hour from work, or it's on your way to work,

401
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:23,560
Speaker 2: and you can stop in in the morning and get

402
00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:26,439
Speaker 2: a quick hunt and get a few birds in the

403
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:28,600
Speaker 2: bag and then go on to work or whatever, and

404
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:30,680
Speaker 2: you can do that. It's fantastic. It's one of the

405
00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:34,480
Speaker 2: amazing things about living where we live, and you know,

406
00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:36,800
Speaker 2: having those options available. But all of a sudden, if

407
00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:39,120
Speaker 2: you know you're going to bump into three or four

408
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:42,879
Speaker 2: protesters and you might not get any birds, the temptations

409
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:44,879
Speaker 2: just to go I'll just drive straight past this morning,

410
00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:48,119
Speaker 2: or yeah, the barrier to entry of new hunters to

411
00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:50,359
Speaker 2: go why would I even bother putting myself through all that.

412
00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:54,919
Speaker 2: It's certainly a factor, and it's definitely a barrier to

413
00:23:54,960 --> 00:23:57,320
Speaker 2: recruitment when hunters have to think, you know, do I

414
00:23:57,359 --> 00:23:58,960
Speaker 2: want to get into this thing where I might have

415
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:00,920
Speaker 2: to deal with these people? Do I just want to

416
00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:05,200
Speaker 2: go off quietly and go fishing or something instead.

417
00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:10,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, And the recruitment conversation is an interesting one here.

418
00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:13,240
Speaker 1: You know, we have certain areas where there's higher hundred

419
00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:16,840
Speaker 1: densities than there ever were, and people don't like the

420
00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:21,720
Speaker 1: word recruitment. We have certain areas where people aren't showing

421
00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:26,400
Speaker 1: up anymore and they're not buying their licenses and tags.

422
00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:32,119
Speaker 1: Since like that that twenty year ago timescale that you

423
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:36,600
Speaker 1: keep mentioning, have you seen a drop in you know,

424
00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:42,040
Speaker 1: registered hunters, registered firearm owners in Australia since twenty years ago.

425
00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:46,600
Speaker 2: We've seen a huge reduction in uh, waterfowl hunters in

426
00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:51,920
Speaker 2: that timeframe, and one hundred percent that those reductions correlate

427
00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:56,760
Speaker 2: very directly with both the increased requirements things like quarterfowl

428
00:24:56,800 --> 00:24:59,760
Speaker 2: identification testing and those sorts of requirements that were bought

429
00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:03,359
Speaker 2: in as a mandatory requirement for hunters is one thing

430
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:06,480
Speaker 2: that dropped it off. And definitely the prevalence of protesters

431
00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:10,520
Speaker 2: and the frequency with which hunts get interrupted and those

432
00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:12,240
Speaker 2: sorts of things have certainly driven a lot of people

433
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:15,760
Speaker 2: out of water fowl hunting, and not always out of hunting,

434
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:19,879
Speaker 2: but it quite regularly into different streams. You might go

435
00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:22,240
Speaker 2: and hunt a year in the highlands or something instead

436
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:25,760
Speaker 2: of running the gauntlet to hunt your water fowl. So

437
00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:29,400
Speaker 2: we've definitely seen it be a big barrier to recruitment

438
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:32,159
Speaker 2: and we kind of look at it and in a

439
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:34,560
Speaker 2: lot of ways you say, well, would you rather put

440
00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:38,040
Speaker 2: up with sitting at a wetland with a whole bunch

441
00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:40,920
Speaker 2: of other hunters or not have that option available to

442
00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 2: you at all. Yeah, the the we're definitely seeing declining

443
00:25:47,119 --> 00:25:49,600
Speaker 2: and recruitment and it's definitely something we're keen to counter

444
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 2: and try and get more and more people into waterfowl

445
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:56,800
Speaker 2: hunting because it comes into that other thing that you

446
00:25:57,119 --> 00:25:59,840
Speaker 2: mentioned earlier. Will and we've definitely seen it thrown in

447
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:03,840
Speaker 2: our face. It's the risk is that the hunting numbers

448
00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:05,920
Speaker 2: of hunters get down to a point where it's seen

449
00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:07,920
Speaker 2: as solow that they go out, Well, you know it's

450
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:10,960
Speaker 2: only two percent of the population now that waterfowl, why

451
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:14,880
Speaker 2: not just ban it. That's definitely that exact line has

452
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:17,440
Speaker 2: made it into the arguments within the Parliament and the

453
00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:21,520
Speaker 2: government against waterfowl hunting in Victoria in these recent debates

454
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 2: we've had. It's definitely something that's thrown at us that

455
00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:26,200
Speaker 2: it's such a small segment of the population, Now, why

456
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:27,399
Speaker 2: don't we just ban it and get rid of it?

457
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: Art of war, divide and conquer. Right, It's we just

458
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:37,840
Speaker 1: went through a big election cycle here, not sure if

459
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:43,480
Speaker 1: you follow the news, but the political advertising from every candidate,

460
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:49,399
Speaker 1: all sides, that comes up every four years. Right, it's like, Okay,

461
00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:51,960
Speaker 1: you can vote for this, but if you vote for this,

462
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:56,760
Speaker 1: you can't have that. And it gets people so fractionalized

463
00:26:57,400 --> 00:27:01,800
Speaker 1: that they don't understand that had they just gotten together,

464
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:05,880
Speaker 1: they could have kept it all or made things better.

465
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:11,440
Speaker 1: But they just get the blinders on, and oftentimes we

466
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:14,280
Speaker 1: don't realize what we've lost until it's too late.

467
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:17,120
Speaker 2: Did right, And that's the that's certainly what we've seen

468
00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:22,080
Speaker 2: is certainly the cautionary retail for us to share is

469
00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:24,880
Speaker 2: exactly that. That's very much what they did here. They've

470
00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:29,120
Speaker 2: split off different segments of the community and they've gradually

471
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 2: eroded different rights away from people by doing exactly that. Well,

472
00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:37,879
Speaker 2: you know, the arguments that are such a small segment

473
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:41,280
Speaker 2: of the population were definitely being thrown around, and while

474
00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:44,119
Speaker 2: it was just waterfowl hunters that would have worked, and

475
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:47,080
Speaker 2: it very nearly did work. It was only when we

476
00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:50,800
Speaker 2: managed to get united and pull all hunters into the

477
00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:53,240
Speaker 2: same bask and okay, we've only got in the state

478
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:55,920
Speaker 2: of Victoria, we've got twenty five thousand duck hunters. That

479
00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:59,000
Speaker 2: number is so in you know, so small that it

480
00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:01,560
Speaker 2: wasn't going to be a blip on any of the

481
00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:06,560
Speaker 2: politicians radar. When we added in fifty thousand deer hunters

482
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:08,720
Speaker 2: as well, that was still such a small number that

483
00:28:08,840 --> 00:28:11,560
Speaker 2: it probably wasn't going to work either. When we pulled

484
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:14,800
Speaker 2: in four hundred thousand trade unionists who said, you know,

485
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,680
Speaker 2: as a tradesman, I like my outdoor recreation activities. I

486
00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:21,760
Speaker 2: might not specifically hunt duck, but I can see now

487
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:23,520
Speaker 2: the riding is on the wall that if I allow

488
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:25,640
Speaker 2: you to ban duck hunting, you're going to then come

489
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:28,200
Speaker 2: for fishing and my water skiing and my boating and

490
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:31,560
Speaker 2: my everything else as well. It was really only when

491
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:35,040
Speaker 2: we managed to pull in that broader outdoor recreational community

492
00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:38,200
Speaker 2: and unite them all behind this understanding that if they

493
00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:41,480
Speaker 2: banned this tiny section, yours might be the next tiny

494
00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:44,520
Speaker 2: section of the community they come after. That was a

495
00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:49,120
Speaker 2: really really important part of what we went through here.

496
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:51,560
Speaker 2: In Australia to actually ultimately save duck hunting and have

497
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:55,760
Speaker 2: it not banned through that parliamentary process. But again, the

498
00:28:56,720 --> 00:28:59,360
Speaker 2: writings on the wall, they're playing from the same playbook

499
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 2: in the US and other places as well. They're looking

500
00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 2: for those those niche groups that they can exclude that

501
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 2: other hunters are going to look and go, well, look

502
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:09,360
Speaker 2: that doesn't really affect me directly anyway, so I'll let

503
00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:12,880
Speaker 2: that go. And next minute the debate becomes, well, look,

504
00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:16,200
Speaker 2: we've already banned trapping, We've already banned bear hunting, We've

505
00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:19,520
Speaker 2: already banned cat hunting. Why wouldn't we ban waterfowl hunting

506
00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:21,920
Speaker 2: as well? It just makes sense, you know, that's their

507
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:27,560
Speaker 2: retric that's where where they'll approach it from, and that's why. Yeah,

508
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:29,320
Speaker 2: the message we're trying to get out there is important,

509
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:31,120
Speaker 2: Like it doesn't matter if what they're trying to ban

510
00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:33,560
Speaker 2: is a tiny small thing that you will never hunt anyway.

511
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:36,400
Speaker 2: We need to be united and we need to all

512
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:38,880
Speaker 2: be standing together to stop these bands taking place.

513
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:42,040
Speaker 1: As Jordan said, you know, we do have a lot

514
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:46,120
Speaker 1: of listeners in Australia, and we did get real time

515
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:53,000
Speaker 1: updates on the elections in Australia and would you mind

516
00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:56,880
Speaker 1: going in a little bit more and you'll explain it

517
00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:00,600
Speaker 1: again a little bit. But you managed and I'm sure

518
00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 1: a coalition of of hunting, conservation, wildlife groups got together

519
00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:12,640
Speaker 1: and managed to get this trade union group, who, as

520
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:17,920
Speaker 1: you just explained, numbers wise, was a significant piece of

521
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:22,840
Speaker 1: the election ballot puzzle to come together and say, hey,

522
00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:25,680
Speaker 1: this is important to us, don't touch it. Can Can

523
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:27,680
Speaker 1: you explain that a little bit more and how you

524
00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:28,720
Speaker 1: got that to happen.

525
00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:33,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think in the Australian context again to

526
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 2: kind of flesh out this same picture that we're talking

527
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:37,400
Speaker 2: about a little bit.

528
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:37,480
Speaker 3: So.

529
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 2: So in Australia, we've we've got the makeup of five

530
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:45,640
Speaker 2: states and two territories that make up the Australian land mass.

531
00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:49,680
Speaker 2: Gradually we've we've had things happen so that you know,

532
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:54,840
Speaker 2: the Queensland and Western Australia both banned waterfowl hunting a

533
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:58,640
Speaker 2: long time ago, but it's not really any great opportunities

534
00:30:58,680 --> 00:31:01,000
Speaker 2: to hunt waterfowl in those states anyway, so they banned

535
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:02,920
Speaker 2: a recreation season. They decided we're not going to have

536
00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:05,800
Speaker 2: a regulated season, and hunters kind of struggled and that's okay,

537
00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:10,080
Speaker 2: nobody hunts there anyway. Australian Capital Territory the same thing.

538
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:12,280
Speaker 2: There's nowhere to hunt ducks in that territory. So when

539
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:14,200
Speaker 2: they turn around and said we're going to ban duck hunting,

540
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:17,320
Speaker 2: it wasn't even a blip because you can't hunt ducks

541
00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 2: there anyway, so why would we care. And it sort

542
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:25,440
Speaker 2: of went through that process where there's three three states

543
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 2: in one large territory in Australia that have recreational duck

544
00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:33,680
Speaker 2: hunting seasons, and it just happened. The real political attack

545
00:31:33,800 --> 00:31:35,560
Speaker 2: really took off at the end of twenty twenty two

546
00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:38,720
Speaker 2: when two of those states were in election cycles where

547
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:43,120
Speaker 2: it was made as their political promises to the anti

548
00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:47,200
Speaker 2: hunting political parties that if you put your votes with

549
00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 2: us this year and we get voted in, will will

550
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:53,480
Speaker 2: promise to do a deep diver look in the waterfowl

551
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:56,400
Speaker 2: hunting or native game bird hunting. And they were referring

552
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:58,120
Speaker 2: to because we do have a stubble quail, we hunt

553
00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:01,800
Speaker 2: under the same regulations. So I said, if you team

554
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:05,040
Speaker 2: up with us politically, we'll investigate this in the next

555
00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:07,680
Speaker 2: election cycle, will hold inquiries into whether we should be

556
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:10,800
Speaker 2: hunting game or not. And that took place in two

557
00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:14,040
Speaker 2: of those three hunting states, in South Australia and in Victoria.

558
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:18,200
Speaker 2: Both of those state political parties announced after those elections

559
00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:20,160
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two that okay, now we're going to

560
00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:23,720
Speaker 2: hold an inquiry into game bird hunting in our states.

561
00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:28,560
Speaker 2: In South Australia, we were involved in that process, and

562
00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:32,160
Speaker 2: it became reasonably clear, fairly early in that process that

563
00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:36,200
Speaker 2: the Parliamentary Inquiry in charge of that inquiry in South

564
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:39,520
Speaker 2: Australia were reasonable people, and they were listening to the

565
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:41,840
Speaker 2: science and they were listening to the scientists and the

566
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:44,320
Speaker 2: data that were saying there's absolutely no reason you can't

567
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:47,840
Speaker 2: hunt waterfowl or native game birds in South Australia. It's sustainable,

568
00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:53,040
Speaker 2: it's well managed, it's well regulated. We're okay. So in

569
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:56,680
Speaker 2: South Australia that process was kind of less threatening, but

570
00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:59,200
Speaker 2: in Victoria especially, it was very much a case that

571
00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 2: the Elementary Inquirer in Victoria was heavily loaded with anti

572
00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:07,880
Speaker 2: hunting ideologists and we faced a real risk there. We

573
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,400
Speaker 2: made all the same arguments, we showed the same science,

574
00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:12,680
Speaker 2: we showed the data, and it was really where the

575
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:14,840
Speaker 2: US connections came in when we were looking for that

576
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:18,120
Speaker 2: really good science and data. The North American model has

577
00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:22,080
Speaker 2: that in spades over anything we have in Australia, and

578
00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:25,080
Speaker 2: that's where our involvement with delta waterfowl and others came in.

579
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:28,000
Speaker 2: That we were reaching out basically to every group that

580
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:30,400
Speaker 2: could help us to put that picture together, to show

581
00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:33,400
Speaker 2: that native game bird hunting is sustainable, it is responsible,

582
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:37,920
Speaker 2: and it's enjoyed by lots of perfectly reasonable people. We

583
00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:41,600
Speaker 2: made that argument scientifically to the committee, but their anti

584
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:44,680
Speaker 2: hunting ideology on that committee was such that they ignored

585
00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:47,480
Speaker 2: the science and they made a recommendation to the Victorian

586
00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:51,320
Speaker 2: government that native game bird hunting should be banned. Now

587
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:56,360
Speaker 2: that was obviously, you know, we were hopeful through that

588
00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:59,600
Speaker 2: Parliamentary inquiry that the science by itself might be enough

589
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:04,440
Speaker 2: to win the day. But when the Parliamentary Inquiry came

590
00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:06,040
Speaker 2: out and said we've ignored all of that and we're

591
00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:08,640
Speaker 2: banning it anyway. We're making the recommendation to ban it anyway,

592
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:12,799
Speaker 2: that was when the gear shifted and an okay, Now, well,

593
00:34:12,840 --> 00:34:15,000
Speaker 2: obviously we were doing some stuff politically, but that was

594
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:17,320
Speaker 2: really the point we were ok this argument isn't a

595
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:20,719
Speaker 2: scientific one anymore. It's purely a political one. Now, how

596
00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:23,239
Speaker 2: do we pull the political leaders that we need? And

597
00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:25,760
Speaker 2: that's where it comes in what you're saying. We obviously

598
00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:29,280
Speaker 2: went well politically. The trade unions have a huge amount

599
00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:31,520
Speaker 2: of political power because there are a big bunch of

600
00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:36,080
Speaker 2: blue collar workers who have a fair bit of sway.

601
00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:39,920
Speaker 2: But I've quoted it before and I'm going to misdo it,

602
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:42,759
Speaker 2: but the secretary of one of those large unions has

603
00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:45,319
Speaker 2: a very good spill that rolls off his tongue very

604
00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:48,080
Speaker 2: well where he kind of explains as a trade union,

605
00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:51,840
Speaker 2: the Electricians trade union in Victoria, were average age is

606
00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 2: thirty five. They're mail in their garage, They've got a

607
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:57,960
Speaker 2: full wall, drive, a motorbikeer fishing rod, and probably a

608
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:02,400
Speaker 2: gun safe. They are people heavily involved in their outdoor recreation.

609
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:05,359
Speaker 2: Blue collar workers. They work hard, but then they also

610
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:07,520
Speaker 2: like to get out and enjoy their outdoor spaces and

611
00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:11,279
Speaker 2: their outdoor pursuits. So that was a group of people

612
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:13,480
Speaker 2: that we were very keen to talk to and as

613
00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:15,960
Speaker 2: we've said, make that point to them that hey, it

614
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:18,239
Speaker 2: might be hunting today and that might be okay. But

615
00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:20,160
Speaker 2: then they're going to come after your jet skis, they're

616
00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:22,040
Speaker 2: going to come after your motorbikes, they're going to come

617
00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:24,360
Speaker 2: after your public access to all the spaces where you

618
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:28,080
Speaker 2: enjoy all of those other outdoor suits as well. And

619
00:35:28,239 --> 00:35:32,640
Speaker 2: that was really resoundingly heard by that blue collar voting

620
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:35,800
Speaker 2: base where they went, you know what, you're right, we

621
00:35:35,880 --> 00:35:37,920
Speaker 2: can see that now the riding is on the wall.

622
00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:40,040
Speaker 2: We've seen it before. Each time they ban one thing,

623
00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:42,800
Speaker 2: they don't then go okay, we're happy now, they go

624
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:44,520
Speaker 2: straight on to trying to ban the next and the

625
00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:48,240
Speaker 2: next and the next. And so that was the political movement.

626
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:50,799
Speaker 2: Then that came out of the trade union's involvement where

627
00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:52,520
Speaker 2: they got on board and said, yep, we support what

628
00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:54,120
Speaker 2: you're trying to do when we see we've got to

629
00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:56,640
Speaker 2: draw this line in the sand somewhere. And it was

630
00:35:56,760 --> 00:35:59,800
Speaker 2: only in Victoria. It was only through the weight of

631
00:35:59,840 --> 00:36:02,680
Speaker 2: the political movement putting pressure on the government to say

632
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:05,239
Speaker 2: you need to ignore that recommendation and you need to

633
00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:08,520
Speaker 2: maintain our right to hunt in Victoria that that won

634
00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:10,799
Speaker 2: that day for us, that we've got that decision from

635
00:36:10,840 --> 00:36:15,640
Speaker 2: the government to say, well, the Parliamentary inquiry made nine recommendations,

636
00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:18,320
Speaker 2: the first of which was to ban hunting. They ignored

637
00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:22,080
Speaker 2: that first recommendation, but they took the rest of their

638
00:36:22,080 --> 00:36:25,480
Speaker 2: recommendations they made, which increased regulations and restrictions and those

639
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:27,680
Speaker 2: sorts of things, all the stuff we can live with.

640
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:32,400
Speaker 1: But yeah, that political.

641
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:33,759
Speaker 2: Power to make them say that we won't accept a

642
00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:37,400
Speaker 2: ban was definitely what was required and what won the

643
00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:38,520
Speaker 2: day for us in that battle.

644
00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:45,520
Speaker 1: Gosh, that's that. I mean, it's amazing and just hats

645
00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:49,000
Speaker 1: off to your well done for sticking with it. You know,

646
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:55,160
Speaker 1: as you said, you've seen the numbers of participants in hunting,

647
00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:59,120
Speaker 1: in firearms ownership drop off in the last twenty years,

648
00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:06,239
Speaker 1: and in any conservation fight issue, there's there's so much

649
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:12,239
Speaker 1: fatigue issue fatigue that you know, it's not that much

650
00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:14,719
Speaker 1: of a wonder when you watch people go, Okay, screw it,

651
00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:16,719
Speaker 1: I'm going to pick up the fishing rod a little

652
00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:19,360
Speaker 1: bit more because this other stuff just isn't worth it.

653
00:37:20,719 --> 00:37:26,000
Speaker 1: And particularly when we talk, when that reason goes out

654
00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:29,240
Speaker 1: the window, I'm tempted to ask you what the reasoning

655
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:34,600
Speaker 1: is for banning hunting, But oftentimes the only reason is

656
00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:37,759
Speaker 1: because we don't like it. We don't have to know

657
00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:40,600
Speaker 1: anything about it. We don't need to know the reasons

658
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:44,480
Speaker 1: why you do it. All we have to say is

659
00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 1: we don't like it.

660
00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:48,839
Speaker 2: That's exactly right, and that is that is the any reason. Yeah,

661
00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:53,120
Speaker 2: again objectively, rather probably not objectively. Sitting through the parliamentary

662
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:55,600
Speaker 2: inquiries and the hearings and hearing the evidence presented from

663
00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:58,120
Speaker 2: the other sides, it was it was very clear to

664
00:37:58,200 --> 00:38:01,080
Speaker 2: me that they didn't actually have a reason outside of

665
00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:04,360
Speaker 2: we don't like it, so we wanted banned. One of

666
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:08,200
Speaker 2: the other big issues that came up and was talked about,

667
00:38:08,320 --> 00:38:10,759
Speaker 2: you know, again, they did things like that we were

668
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:14,480
Speaker 2: still going to allow the agricultural control of ducks when

669
00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:16,560
Speaker 2: they become an agricultural pest. You'll still be able to

670
00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:20,239
Speaker 2: shoot them. That's fine. And this other side is actually saying, oh,

671
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:25,000
Speaker 2: that's fine. Well, how does it differ. How is that

672
00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:27,200
Speaker 2: a different issue in your mind if your problem is

673
00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:30,840
Speaker 2: that a duck is dying. But even within their own ideology,

674
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:33,319
Speaker 2: they didn't actually have an answer to that. And again

675
00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:35,640
Speaker 2: I think that's because behind their own ideology they're not

676
00:38:35,719 --> 00:38:37,319
Speaker 2: okay with that. But they're saying, look, we're not going

677
00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:39,120
Speaker 2: to try and fight that battle. Right now, we're going

678
00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:42,480
Speaker 2: to ban the recreational season and then we'll ban the

679
00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:48,319
Speaker 2: agricultural control later. But yeah, it was it was very

680
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:50,960
Speaker 2: apparent that that issue fatigue, as you say that, the

681
00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:54,799
Speaker 2: there definitely was that from within our own community, where

682
00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:57,480
Speaker 2: there were plenty of people just saying this has been

683
00:38:57,520 --> 00:38:59,680
Speaker 2: coming for a while. We knew it was coming. Oh well,

684
00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:02,920
Speaker 2: it's time to hang up the hang up the waiters,

685
00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:05,359
Speaker 2: and we'll just take on a different pastime as well.

686
00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:08,160
Speaker 2: So we've definitely seen that and we did see again,

687
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:09,840
Speaker 2: we did see a drop in hunters again in the

688
00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:13,600
Speaker 2: last twelve months of about two thousand less game bird

689
00:39:13,719 --> 00:39:19,479
Speaker 2: license holders. Now since the regulations, since we've won the battle,

690
00:39:19,480 --> 00:39:23,759
Speaker 2: if you like, since the regulations have been rewritten, we've

691
00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:26,759
Speaker 2: seen an uptick again, which we're really encouraged by, and

692
00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:28,839
Speaker 2: we're driving hard to try and get more and more

693
00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:30,600
Speaker 2: people now they actually know, look, this is not going

694
00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:33,160
Speaker 2: to get banned next year. We have secured the future

695
00:39:33,200 --> 00:39:35,839
Speaker 2: of waterfowl hunting. Let's get new people into it. Let's

696
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:39,399
Speaker 2: set our recruitment. It's certainly something we're keen to push

697
00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:42,960
Speaker 2: hard to get people back into it again. But yeah,

698
00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:45,640
Speaker 2: that erosion factor that issue. Fatigue was definitely an issue.

699
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:49,080
Speaker 1: Well yeah, and what you just mentioned there too definitely

700
00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:54,280
Speaker 1: catches my ear right. It's like, if there's no knowing

701
00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:57,880
Speaker 1: that the activity is going to be around in the

702
00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:01,279
Speaker 1: next year or two, are you going to invest in

703
00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:06,360
Speaker 1: a dog and shotgun and go through the touse and

704
00:40:07,440 --> 00:40:09,120
Speaker 1: you know, just put in that investment.

705
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:12,400
Speaker 2: It's it's a huge barrier, yeah, for sure for a

706
00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:14,640
Speaker 2: new hunter coming in and going, well, yeah, am I

707
00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:17,400
Speaker 2: going to go through all this, all of this process

708
00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:19,520
Speaker 2: to just be told I can't hunt next year anyway?

709
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:24,279
Speaker 2: And they haven't been. Yeah, that's that's I certainly think

710
00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:26,400
Speaker 2: that's been part of the problem as far as recruiting.

711
00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:28,040
Speaker 2: You does into it as you go, Well, you know,

712
00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:30,480
Speaker 2: I've gone through all the whole process of getting a

713
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:32,600
Speaker 2: firearms license, I can I can now just go over

714
00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:35,759
Speaker 2: there on a friend neighbors property and hunt rabbits all

715
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:38,520
Speaker 2: day and I can do that. That's easy enough. I'll

716
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:42,520
Speaker 2: just do that instead rather than than like say, invest

717
00:40:42,560 --> 00:40:45,400
Speaker 2: the time and effort into to all the year. Obviously,

718
00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:48,640
Speaker 2: I don't need to explain to you how expensive waterfowling

719
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:51,200
Speaker 2: can be. We do like our gadgets, and we do

720
00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:55,680
Speaker 2: like our gear. But yeah, but was certainly a lot

721
00:40:55,719 --> 00:40:57,640
Speaker 2: of conversations I was having when I was over at

722
00:40:57,680 --> 00:41:00,560
Speaker 2: the Deal of Waterfowl Expo talking to the tailors, I

723
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:02,879
Speaker 2: was sort of trying to explain them, Look, the time

724
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:05,560
Speaker 2: is perfect for you to bring product into Australia because

725
00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:08,239
Speaker 2: people have three or four year old waiters with holes

726
00:41:08,280 --> 00:41:10,399
Speaker 2: all through them that they haven't replaced because they haven't

727
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:12,799
Speaker 2: been sure they were going to need them. They've got

728
00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:15,560
Speaker 2: old boats, they've got old decoys, they've got old gear

729
00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:18,279
Speaker 2: that they haven't been replacing because they weren't sure whether

730
00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:19,440
Speaker 2: they were going to still be able to use it

731
00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:22,560
Speaker 2: or not. I suspect in twenty twenty five you're going

732
00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:24,920
Speaker 2: to see lots of shiny new waiters and shiny new

733
00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:28,239
Speaker 2: boats and shiny new dogs even in lots of our

734
00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:31,480
Speaker 2: waterfowling spots in Australia. And I, for one, I'm going

735
00:41:31,560 --> 00:41:32,680
Speaker 2: to be out enjoying seeing that.

736
00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:37,279
Speaker 1: I'm not going to take everybody's time to lead into it.

737
00:41:37,360 --> 00:41:41,760
Speaker 1: But we had a conversation that these activists can steal

738
00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:46,279
Speaker 1: your duck if it's a crippled duck, which just blew

739
00:41:46,360 --> 00:41:48,319
Speaker 1: my mind. Can you explain that a little bit.

740
00:41:49,120 --> 00:41:52,360
Speaker 2: Yes. Again, it's one of the craziest parts of this

741
00:41:52,480 --> 00:41:56,360
Speaker 2: whole thing. And certainly the ideologists, the activists in the swamps,

742
00:41:56,400 --> 00:41:59,560
Speaker 2: there are a lot of their reasoning or they're masquerading

743
00:41:59,600 --> 00:42:01,959
Speaker 2: as why they actually need to be in the water

744
00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:05,359
Speaker 2: to exercise their right to process. They've certainly doubled down

745
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:09,480
Speaker 2: on that by saying, well, we're actually here as wildlife rescuers.

746
00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 2: So again, within the within the Wildlife Act, there are

747
00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:17,359
Speaker 2: parts of that legislation that allows somebody if they see

748
00:42:17,400 --> 00:42:20,879
Speaker 2: an animal that is clearly in distress, that they can

749
00:42:21,719 --> 00:42:23,200
Speaker 2: I'm using air quotes, so I know I've got my

750
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:26,160
Speaker 2: camera off, but the air quotes, they can rescue that duck.

751
00:42:27,280 --> 00:42:30,080
Speaker 2: And they can legally take a game bird species in

752
00:42:30,160 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 2: a wetland that is an injured or sick or dead bird,

753
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:34,719
Speaker 2: and they can go, well, we were in the act

754
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:37,200
Speaker 2: of trying to rescue it. That's why we possessed that

755
00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:40,279
Speaker 2: bird at that time. So yeah, we one hundred percent

756
00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:43,760
Speaker 2: have seen instances where these people are in the decoys

757
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:47,160
Speaker 2: and when a duck is killed outright or wounded and

758
00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:50,440
Speaker 2: is in the water, these so called rescuers swoop in

759
00:42:50,719 --> 00:42:54,479
Speaker 2: and grab that bird and make off with it. Now again,

760
00:42:54,520 --> 00:42:57,600
Speaker 2: two years ago, there were some crazy figures coming out

761
00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:01,120
Speaker 2: of some of these groups representing that, you know, they

762
00:43:01,160 --> 00:43:05,200
Speaker 2: were rescuing hundreds of birds and taking them back to

763
00:43:05,320 --> 00:43:10,040
Speaker 2: these triage tents and laying them out. Now, it came

764
00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:12,040
Speaker 2: out in the inquiry that some of the main groups

765
00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:15,719
Speaker 2: responsible for that so called rescue hadn't actually had a

766
00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:19,279
Speaker 2: duck survive in the last two years. So they called

767
00:43:19,280 --> 00:43:22,000
Speaker 2: themselves rescuers. But what they're actually doing is just stealing

768
00:43:22,040 --> 00:43:26,520
Speaker 2: dead ducks. But they were doing that, and they were

769
00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:28,719
Speaker 2: presenting it back to politicians and they look at all

770
00:43:28,760 --> 00:43:33,160
Speaker 2: these wounded birds that we rescued, Well, it's not rescued

771
00:43:33,160 --> 00:43:34,799
Speaker 2: if you're taking them out of the hands of a hunter.

772
00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:40,000
Speaker 2: It's just stealing people's birds. But within the legislation, yeah,

773
00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:43,640
Speaker 2: they could do that, and they have done that. Now. Interestingly,

774
00:43:43,840 --> 00:43:46,760
Speaker 2: again in the twenty twenty four season, the game management

775
00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:50,800
Speaker 2: actually brought in a process whereby those so called rescue

776
00:43:50,840 --> 00:43:54,239
Speaker 2: birds were actually being x rayed and confirmed that they

777
00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:57,799
Speaker 2: had actually been shot, and a verified report being done

778
00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:01,239
Speaker 2: on them and on opening more in one location last

779
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:04,160
Speaker 2: year where they reported that they rescued over one hundred

780
00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:06,719
Speaker 2: birds with the process in place this year that they

781
00:44:06,880 --> 00:44:08,839
Speaker 2: X rayed every single one of those birds. They only

782
00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:12,920
Speaker 2: rescued about ten, So there's certainly a big part of

783
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:16,680
Speaker 2: that that they were picking up road killed birds and

784
00:44:16,719 --> 00:44:19,160
Speaker 2: freezing them. They were finding diseased or dead birds and

785
00:44:19,239 --> 00:44:21,080
Speaker 2: freezing them, and then they were turning up on opening

786
00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:23,359
Speaker 2: morning and tipping all these birds out of a bag

787
00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:25,560
Speaker 2: and saying, oh, these are all the birds we rescued today.

788
00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:28,719
Speaker 2: A very small number of them were being stolen that

789
00:44:28,800 --> 00:44:31,080
Speaker 2: from under hunters, but many more of them were just

790
00:44:31,239 --> 00:44:36,040
Speaker 2: purely being misrepresented as they weren't even hunted birds. But again,

791
00:44:36,120 --> 00:44:40,640
Speaker 2: it's that cross roads that I can see that, Yeah,

792
00:44:40,640 --> 00:44:42,160
Speaker 2: I can see a trajectory where you're going to need

793
00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:44,520
Speaker 2: to deal with those sorts of issues where you are

794
00:44:44,560 --> 00:44:49,520
Speaker 2: as well. Where does where does a wildlife rescuers writes

795
00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:52,520
Speaker 2: cross over with the hunters and when does that crossover

796
00:44:52,600 --> 00:44:55,200
Speaker 2: when there's that wounded animal still in the act of

797
00:44:55,320 --> 00:44:58,440
Speaker 2: being hunted or being rescued.

798
00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:03,640
Speaker 1: With this experience answer that you're living through. What do

799
00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:08,640
Speaker 1: you think when you and you mentioned this earlier, but

800
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:14,240
Speaker 1: when you see on our social media and news channels

801
00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:20,839
Speaker 1: about the Colorado Mountain lion band, which thankfully we shot down.

802
00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:25,120
Speaker 1: But what are you what's your gut reaction when you

803
00:45:25,160 --> 00:45:25,960
Speaker 1: see something like that?

804
00:45:27,239 --> 00:45:31,560
Speaker 2: So that that caught my attention, mostly because I really

805
00:45:31,640 --> 00:45:35,080
Speaker 2: saw that as as here's a really strong indication that

806
00:45:35,200 --> 00:45:38,239
Speaker 2: the ideology we've been dealing with four years now has

807
00:45:38,320 --> 00:45:39,359
Speaker 2: made its way over there.

808
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:40,759
Speaker 3: It was.

809
00:45:41,360 --> 00:45:44,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was written from the same book. That whole

810
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:46,440
Speaker 2: band was exactly the same thing. We don't actually have

811
00:45:46,560 --> 00:45:49,320
Speaker 2: any scientific grounds or any real reason to want to

812
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:51,960
Speaker 2: do this, but we don't like hunting, so we're going

813
00:45:52,040 --> 00:45:55,040
Speaker 2: to try and ban it. And again, following similar veins,

814
00:45:55,040 --> 00:45:57,360
Speaker 2: when there was actually no scientific reason to do it,

815
00:45:57,440 --> 00:45:58,840
Speaker 2: they said, well, that's all right. We're just going to

816
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:01,440
Speaker 2: take the ideology and will apply it in a political

817
00:46:01,480 --> 00:46:05,320
Speaker 2: arena and we'll try and have it banned from that aspect.

818
00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:09,680
Speaker 2: So yeah, I definitely. When I saw it initially, I went, well,

819
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:12,560
Speaker 2: this should be a pretty good indication that this ideology

820
00:46:12,680 --> 00:46:16,000
Speaker 2: is global, and these methods are global, and they are

821
00:46:16,080 --> 00:46:19,120
Speaker 2: going to try it on everywhere they possibly can. I

822
00:46:19,239 --> 00:46:22,480
Speaker 2: was obviously extremely encouraged to see Hunters band together the

823
00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:25,400
Speaker 2: way they did, and see it addressed and see it

824
00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:29,600
Speaker 2: ultimately fail. But I think again, the messaging out of

825
00:46:29,680 --> 00:46:33,040
Speaker 2: that is the same. I think they've failed once in

826
00:46:33,160 --> 00:46:35,480
Speaker 2: one state, but in our need to be even more

827
00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:39,480
Speaker 2: vigilant to watch every single sub section of hunting and

828
00:46:39,560 --> 00:46:42,160
Speaker 2: every single place where there's where there's activity is going on,

829
00:46:42,280 --> 00:46:46,759
Speaker 2: because yeah, if our lived experience has anything to go by,

830
00:46:46,840 --> 00:46:49,120
Speaker 2: this this is the start, not the finish, of these

831
00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:50,600
Speaker 2: ideological attacks on hunting.

832
00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:56,800
Speaker 1: Well, it's the reality is everybody evolves, right, So we

833
00:46:57,040 --> 00:47:02,600
Speaker 1: open our playbook against their open playbook in trying to

834
00:47:02,719 --> 00:47:07,560
Speaker 1: win just this one vote on this one citizens initiative.

835
00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:12,399
Speaker 1: That data is going to be used in the next

836
00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:15,680
Speaker 1: fight in the next state, or the same fight in

837
00:47:15,760 --> 00:47:20,360
Speaker 1: the same state later on. It's just inevitable. Is we

838
00:47:20,719 --> 00:47:22,279
Speaker 1: need to get to a place where we can't have

839
00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:28,200
Speaker 1: the conversation when it's founded in fantasy versus fact.

840
00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:28,840
Speaker 2: I guess.

841
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:33,880
Speaker 1: Another interesting thing that you brought up, because this is

842
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:37,120
Speaker 1: something that is every ten years, this pops up in

843
00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:39,880
Speaker 1: the US. It drives me crazy because it's just in

844
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:42,360
Speaker 1: my opinion, cutting your nose off to spite your face.

845
00:47:42,440 --> 00:47:46,360
Speaker 1: But you had mentioned like the loss of access to

846
00:47:46,640 --> 00:47:51,719
Speaker 1: these public hunting areas, and you know we're seeing that

847
00:47:51,960 --> 00:47:57,279
Speaker 1: same move here again. In the US where politicians are

848
00:47:57,360 --> 00:48:02,080
Speaker 1: banding together to sue the US government to divast which

849
00:48:02,160 --> 00:48:07,000
Speaker 1: is a fancy word for sell public land, primarily here

850
00:48:07,040 --> 00:48:11,440
Speaker 1: in these Western states, which is you know where, like

851
00:48:11,520 --> 00:48:15,359
Speaker 1: I said, the high hunter density still exists. Are there

852
00:48:15,400 --> 00:48:18,000
Speaker 1: any lessons from your side of things that we can

853
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:18,959
Speaker 1: learn on that fate?

854
00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:23,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's certainly, yeah, certainly, I get a progression. I

855
00:48:23,320 --> 00:48:27,760
Speaker 2: think of the same thing I think well throughout throughout

856
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:30,080
Speaker 2: all of this. I think one of the big advantages

857
00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:33,600
Speaker 2: you have is that is the science and the years

858
00:48:33,640 --> 00:48:35,800
Speaker 2: of data collection you've got over there, and you know,

859
00:48:35,880 --> 00:48:39,880
Speaker 2: the very established conservation organizations that are operational that are

860
00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:43,560
Speaker 2: preserving this land. But to go on a slight tangent,

861
00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:46,000
Speaker 2: so in New South Wales is one of our biggest

862
00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:48,839
Speaker 2: states in Australia. Back in nineteen ninety six, they banned

863
00:48:48,920 --> 00:48:55,520
Speaker 2: recreational dark hunting. They have a large agricultural sector where

864
00:48:55,520 --> 00:48:59,680
Speaker 2: there's plenty of opportunity for hunters to hunt under agricultural permits.

865
00:49:00,280 --> 00:49:02,600
Speaker 2: Their loss of their recreational season. Again, it was one

866
00:49:02,600 --> 00:49:04,600
Speaker 2: of those things I spoke about earlier that wasn't seen

867
00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:06,879
Speaker 2: as a big deal because they went, well, look we're

868
00:49:06,880 --> 00:49:09,799
Speaker 2: still going to have opportunity anyway. But what they saw

869
00:49:10,200 --> 00:49:12,799
Speaker 2: as a flow on then was they also lost. Now

870
00:49:13,400 --> 00:49:15,440
Speaker 2: it might need to fact check the numbers, but I

871
00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:17,359
Speaker 2: think the latest thing is they've lost something like eighty

872
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:21,800
Speaker 2: percent of their shallow temporary wetlands. So they'd turned around

873
00:49:22,040 --> 00:49:25,200
Speaker 2: and took away the public access to those things to hunt. Now, nobody,

874
00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:29,239
Speaker 2: nobody had the sweat equity or the vested interest in

875
00:49:29,360 --> 00:49:31,880
Speaker 2: looking after those pieces of land, and so they were

876
00:49:31,880 --> 00:49:35,400
Speaker 2: gradually sold off to farmers who drained the swamp, plowed

877
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:38,160
Speaker 2: it and put it in with wheat or growing or

878
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:41,680
Speaker 2: whatever else they were growing. So once that land wasn't

879
00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:44,680
Speaker 2: useful for hunters, it really wasn't useful to anybody else,

880
00:49:44,840 --> 00:49:48,920
Speaker 2: and it disappeared. So even our lead water bird signists

881
00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:52,040
Speaker 2: in Australia say that should be a cautionary tail that

882
00:49:52,600 --> 00:49:55,000
Speaker 2: actually keeping that hunting access to that land and that

883
00:49:55,160 --> 00:49:58,080
Speaker 2: vested interest of hunters in preserving that land was a

884
00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:03,640
Speaker 2: really important part of of the picture. So I think, yeah,

885
00:50:04,040 --> 00:50:07,120
Speaker 2: with obviously listening to yourself and watching the news over there,

886
00:50:07,200 --> 00:50:09,480
Speaker 2: these land grabs that are being made by the states

887
00:50:09,560 --> 00:50:12,600
Speaker 2: to take this public land that's already public land, and

888
00:50:12,719 --> 00:50:15,320
Speaker 2: somehow they seem to be trying to sell it as

889
00:50:15,320 --> 00:50:18,560
Speaker 2: they're going to make it more public, but actually the

890
00:50:18,640 --> 00:50:20,440
Speaker 2: threat will be that that will be sold to somebody

891
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:23,680
Speaker 2: whose interest is in an area other than hunting or

892
00:50:23,760 --> 00:50:28,840
Speaker 2: preserving the habitat required by our native species. And not

893
00:50:28,960 --> 00:50:31,560
Speaker 2: only will you lose the public land and the access

894
00:50:31,640 --> 00:50:35,239
Speaker 2: to that land, but you'll also lose the species, so

895
00:50:35,800 --> 00:50:39,480
Speaker 2: you'll lose the habitat for those hunted animals. So I

896
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:42,120
Speaker 2: think you've got to as I can see lots of people,

897
00:50:42,280 --> 00:50:43,640
Speaker 2: I think you have to fight that and fight it

898
00:50:43,719 --> 00:50:46,800
Speaker 2: hard because it is a very real risk. Well we

899
00:50:46,920 --> 00:50:48,399
Speaker 2: might just look at it and go, oh, well, it'll

900
00:50:48,440 --> 00:50:50,520
Speaker 2: be terrible if we don't have so many places to hunt,

901
00:50:50,600 --> 00:50:53,200
Speaker 2: But that's okay, because my wet land over there, that's

902
00:50:53,239 --> 00:50:56,080
Speaker 2: still fine. You've also got to apply the lens of

903
00:50:56,160 --> 00:50:58,000
Speaker 2: going well, not only will you lose the access to

904
00:50:58,040 --> 00:51:00,480
Speaker 2: the land, you'll actually also probably lose the habit and

905
00:51:00,560 --> 00:51:03,359
Speaker 2: therefore your pray species numbers will decline as well.

906
00:51:04,360 --> 00:51:07,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like a snake eating itself. Yeah, I mean,

907
00:51:08,080 --> 00:51:14,200
Speaker 1: you just made some gains regulation wise to ensure more

908
00:51:14,280 --> 00:51:18,000
Speaker 1: water foul seasons to come, and there's a bunch of

909
00:51:18,040 --> 00:51:21,600
Speaker 1: folks who are like, well, we just lost our wetlands,

910
00:51:22,040 --> 00:51:25,560
Speaker 1: so I already sold that shotgun or that boat, and

911
00:51:25,680 --> 00:51:28,560
Speaker 1: the dog's just fat now exactly.

912
00:51:28,760 --> 00:51:30,799
Speaker 2: And then and then you know you're going to get

913
00:51:30,840 --> 00:51:33,320
Speaker 2: hitting several more years with oh, well there's there's less hunters,

914
00:51:33,360 --> 00:51:35,000
Speaker 2: so we might as well just ban it anyway now,

915
00:51:35,120 --> 00:51:40,480
Speaker 2: haven't we. So it's a pretty progressive slide into oblivion

916
00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:42,839
Speaker 2: if we're allowed to continue to happen. So that's why

917
00:51:42,880 --> 00:51:47,480
Speaker 2: I think it's super important with get that message out there,

918
00:51:47,520 --> 00:51:50,040
Speaker 2: with what yourself and others are doing around just pointing

919
00:51:50,080 --> 00:51:52,759
Speaker 2: out that these public land grabs that are happening over

920
00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:55,200
Speaker 2: there are bad for everybody.

921
00:51:55,960 --> 00:51:57,800
Speaker 1: I one good thing that's going to come out of

922
00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:03,640
Speaker 1: this conversation, as I was feeling pretty bad about letting

923
00:52:03,680 --> 00:52:06,600
Speaker 1: the girlfriend know in as nice a way as possible

924
00:52:06,640 --> 00:52:10,200
Speaker 1: that I'm going hunting again this weekend. According to her,

925
00:52:10,520 --> 00:52:13,319
Speaker 1: I've been hunting a lot, but I'm gonna tell her

926
00:52:13,360 --> 00:52:16,360
Speaker 1: about our conversation and let her know that there's a

927
00:52:16,440 --> 00:52:18,920
Speaker 1: real reason that I need to be hunting as much

928
00:52:18,960 --> 00:52:21,880
Speaker 1: as possible because it's not guaranteed.

929
00:52:22,480 --> 00:52:26,600
Speaker 2: Absolutely yep, every every tag sold, every ticket sold, every ticket,

930
00:52:26,600 --> 00:52:29,839
Speaker 2: in attendance box, every every way that any hunter can

931
00:52:30,080 --> 00:52:32,719
Speaker 2: can flag that they've been out, they've been active, they've

932
00:52:32,719 --> 00:52:37,320
Speaker 2: been contributing is super important.

933
00:52:38,400 --> 00:52:41,759
Speaker 1: And lucas, what what's the future look like? What what

934
00:52:42,560 --> 00:52:46,840
Speaker 1: if folks listening want to weigh in and help is

935
00:52:46,920 --> 00:52:51,399
Speaker 1: there a specific way to do so that's that's most

936
00:52:51,520 --> 00:52:53,520
Speaker 1: helpful any anything like that.

937
00:52:54,239 --> 00:52:56,040
Speaker 2: But there's yeah, there's there's a couple of ways anybody

938
00:52:56,080 --> 00:52:57,920
Speaker 2: who's listening to this that that wants to help out

939
00:52:57,960 --> 00:52:59,960
Speaker 2: or wants to learn more about Field and Game Australia

940
00:53:00,680 --> 00:53:04,160
Speaker 2: jump online, find our website Field and Game Australia dot

941
00:53:04,200 --> 00:53:08,600
Speaker 2: com dot au, look us up. There's ways you can join.

942
00:53:08,680 --> 00:53:10,919
Speaker 2: We've got a Friends of f GA option where people

943
00:53:10,960 --> 00:53:13,520
Speaker 2: can go in and you can get yourself a subscription

944
00:53:13,640 --> 00:53:16,719
Speaker 2: to our digital magazine and other updates and where we

945
00:53:16,840 --> 00:53:19,600
Speaker 2: keep you all posted on what's going on. We also

946
00:53:19,760 --> 00:53:25,440
Speaker 2: do have a conservation trust, a registered public charity in

947
00:53:25,520 --> 00:53:29,520
Speaker 2: Australia called the Wetland Environmental Task Force Trust. There's links

948
00:53:29,520 --> 00:53:30,839
Speaker 2: to that on the web page as well. So if

949
00:53:30,840 --> 00:53:34,120
Speaker 2: anybody wants to contribute directly into the conservation efforts that

950
00:53:34,200 --> 00:53:38,480
Speaker 2: we're doing, that options there as well. So yeah, we'll

951
00:53:38,520 --> 00:53:40,360
Speaker 2: accept anybody who wants to jump in and keep an

952
00:53:40,360 --> 00:53:42,640
Speaker 2: eye on us and support us that way. They absolutely can.

953
00:53:43,280 --> 00:53:47,120
Speaker 2: I think I'd like to think now that we've opened

954
00:53:47,160 --> 00:53:50,280
Speaker 2: up some of these relationships with different organizations, you'll hopefully

955
00:53:50,360 --> 00:53:52,480
Speaker 2: see and hear a little bit of us being involved

956
00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:56,000
Speaker 2: with Ducts Unlimited and Elder and other organizations over there.

957
00:53:56,080 --> 00:54:00,400
Speaker 2: We're very keen to keep the international lines of communication

958
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:02,080
Speaker 2: that have been opened in the last couple of years

959
00:54:02,480 --> 00:54:07,040
Speaker 2: wide open and keep communicating backwards and forwards. And I think, yeah,

960
00:54:07,080 --> 00:54:10,360
Speaker 2: that's certainly something that I'm passionate to do it. It

961
00:54:10,520 --> 00:54:13,480
Speaker 2: is as much as hunting gets all the way down

962
00:54:13,520 --> 00:54:16,560
Speaker 2: to the local guy at his local backyard hunting ground,

963
00:54:16,640 --> 00:54:18,759
Speaker 2: it's also a global issue I think that we all

964
00:54:18,880 --> 00:54:22,680
Speaker 2: have to band together on. And yeah, if a couple

965
00:54:22,719 --> 00:54:25,279
Speaker 2: of Australian bloke's coming over to a Delta waterfowl and

966
00:54:25,880 --> 00:54:28,640
Speaker 2: meeting the people we met and having the conversations we

967
00:54:28,800 --> 00:54:31,799
Speaker 2: had is anything to go by, We've got a lot

968
00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:35,160
Speaker 2: more in common then people might think. So I think

969
00:54:35,200 --> 00:54:38,719
Speaker 2: it's important to us to keep sharing those commonalities, keep

970
00:54:38,840 --> 00:54:40,880
Speaker 2: talking about why we love hunting and why we do it,

971
00:54:41,200 --> 00:54:44,840
Speaker 2: and yeah, While we might not necessarily be interested in

972
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:47,319
Speaker 2: recruiting more people down onto our local duckt spond at

973
00:54:47,360 --> 00:54:50,319
Speaker 2: opening morning, we should be trying hard to recruit people

974
00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:53,240
Speaker 2: into the community that enjoy hunting and enjoy gain food.

975
00:54:53,440 --> 00:54:56,719
Speaker 2: And certainly the more people we have that can stand

976
00:54:56,800 --> 00:55:00,640
Speaker 2: up to this ideology of you must ban everything, the better.

977
00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:04,040
Speaker 2: So we're pretty keen to keep talking and keep having

978
00:55:04,080 --> 00:55:07,000
Speaker 2: the conversations, and we'll have them with anybody who wants

979
00:55:07,040 --> 00:55:07,920
Speaker 2: to reach out to us as well.

980
00:55:08,640 --> 00:55:11,799
Speaker 1: That's great, we'll make sure to get that information out there.

981
00:55:12,160 --> 00:55:15,239
Speaker 1: I do want to ask you one more question, because

982
00:55:15,280 --> 00:55:17,320
Speaker 1: you are from the land down Under, we have a

983
00:55:17,400 --> 00:55:20,239
Speaker 1: lot in common for sure, but there's bound to be

984
00:55:20,320 --> 00:55:24,800
Speaker 1: some difference as what is the the Australian way to

985
00:55:24,840 --> 00:55:25,439
Speaker 1: cook a duck.

986
00:55:27,440 --> 00:55:32,200
Speaker 2: That's that's pretty debatable as well, to tell you the truth.

987
00:55:32,640 --> 00:55:36,239
Speaker 2: One of the things, as I myself from a reasonably

988
00:55:36,360 --> 00:55:39,880
Speaker 2: recent convert to duck hunting co and the ways that

989
00:55:40,040 --> 00:55:42,200
Speaker 2: you can cook a duck, you know, like the old

990
00:55:42,239 --> 00:55:45,680
Speaker 2: proverbial way to skin a cat, there are lots and

991
00:55:45,760 --> 00:55:48,920
Speaker 2: lots of ways to cook ducks as well, but they,

992
00:55:49,200 --> 00:55:53,040
Speaker 2: you know, the classic ways are probably again pretty similar

993
00:55:53,120 --> 00:55:56,440
Speaker 2: over a campfire in a duck camp somewhere, but it

994
00:55:56,840 --> 00:55:59,400
Speaker 2: be it in a slow cookers set up, or be

995
00:55:59,480 --> 00:56:02,080
Speaker 2: it direct poles, or on a grill or on a barbecue,

996
00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:06,560
Speaker 2: all of those ways. I don't think there's a bad

997
00:56:06,640 --> 00:56:10,480
Speaker 2: way to cook a duck. There's certainly badly cooked ducks,

998
00:56:11,160 --> 00:56:13,120
Speaker 2: but I haven't come across a bad way to cook

999
00:56:13,120 --> 00:56:15,440
Speaker 2: a duck yet. Cow I love it.

1000
00:56:15,640 --> 00:56:17,000
Speaker 1: I love it well. It sounds like we need to

1001
00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:19,960
Speaker 1: do some duck hunting together. I just I finally got

1002
00:56:20,040 --> 00:56:25,520
Speaker 1: all my dog ripped her chest open in the first

1003
00:56:25,600 --> 00:56:29,200
Speaker 1: three hours of our pheasant season, so now she's she's

1004
00:56:29,280 --> 00:56:32,160
Speaker 1: back and ready to retrieve. So yeah, next time you

1005
00:56:32,239 --> 00:56:34,520
Speaker 1: get over here, better better look us up.

1006
00:56:34,880 --> 00:56:38,000
Speaker 2: Super super keene. I just to share that one more

1007
00:56:38,040 --> 00:56:40,239
Speaker 2: thing that's actually that I say. I'm a recently a

1008
00:56:40,400 --> 00:56:42,600
Speaker 2: recent convert to duck hunting, so I got into it

1009
00:56:42,640 --> 00:56:45,120
Speaker 2: back to front. So I got a dog that was

1010
00:56:45,920 --> 00:56:48,880
Speaker 2: just the dog. I think everybody that's ever had a

1011
00:56:48,960 --> 00:56:52,200
Speaker 2: dog understands when you say the first German short haired

1012
00:56:52,239 --> 00:56:55,359
Speaker 2: pointer that I got was was the dog that would

1013
00:56:55,400 --> 00:56:57,319
Speaker 2: just retrieve and retrieve and retrieve all day. So then

1014
00:56:57,360 --> 00:56:59,560
Speaker 2: I had to buy a shotgun to train the dog,

1015
00:56:59,800 --> 00:57:01,360
Speaker 2: and I thought, well, now I've got the dog in

1016
00:57:01,400 --> 00:57:04,240
Speaker 2: the shotgun, I better get into this game bird hunting business.

1017
00:57:05,400 --> 00:57:08,880
Speaker 2: So so yeah, love my hunting, love my hunting over dogs,

1018
00:57:09,840 --> 00:57:12,239
Speaker 2: and definitely came to do some of it over there

1019
00:57:12,280 --> 00:57:13,319
Speaker 2: with you when we get a chance.

1020
00:57:14,120 --> 00:57:15,319
Speaker 1: Heck yeah, heck yeah.

1021
00:57:15,719 --> 00:57:17,440
Speaker 2: Kin to have you pretty keen to have you come

1022
00:57:17,520 --> 00:57:20,720
Speaker 2: down sometime cal and try and negotiate the saltwater crocodile

1023
00:57:21,520 --> 00:57:24,200
Speaker 2: environment as well. Mind, you see what it's all about

1024
00:57:24,240 --> 00:57:26,120
Speaker 2: hunting now, magpie geese over crocodiles.

1025
00:57:26,960 --> 00:57:30,280
Speaker 1: Don't threaten me with a good time. That sounds great,

1026
00:57:30,720 --> 00:57:34,840
Speaker 1: sounds great, Jordan, You got any closing thoughts here?

1027
00:57:36,360 --> 00:57:39,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess I feel like. One of the themes

1028
00:57:39,760 --> 00:57:41,680
Speaker 3: and something that comes up over and over again in

1029
00:57:41,760 --> 00:57:45,240
Speaker 3: this conversation is just how important it is for everyone

1030
00:57:45,280 --> 00:57:49,040
Speaker 3: who loves the outdoors to stick together. We saw that

1031
00:57:49,440 --> 00:57:53,000
Speaker 3: that's what helped with the Mountain Lion band in Colorado.

1032
00:57:53,720 --> 00:57:56,920
Speaker 3: That sounds like is what did the trick over in Australia.

1033
00:57:57,720 --> 00:58:00,480
Speaker 3: And not only you know, within our country, is within

1034
00:58:00,520 --> 00:58:05,640
Speaker 3: our states, but internationally right, because the anti hunting coalition

1035
00:58:05,800 --> 00:58:08,720
Speaker 3: is global, and so the pro hunting coalition should be

1036
00:58:08,760 --> 00:58:12,600
Speaker 3: global as well, so appreciate so much, Lucas.

1037
00:58:12,960 --> 00:58:16,920
Speaker 1: You're you're coming on well sad Yeah, thank you so much, Lucas,

1038
00:58:17,480 --> 00:58:18,600
Speaker 1: thank you, thanks a lot.

1039
00:58:19,240 --> 00:58:23,960
Speaker 3: M m hm hm