This is a statement from Tim Quilty MLC - Liberal Democrats - Northern Victoria
https://www.facebook.com/pg/TimQuiltyML ... e_internal
"Please feel free to share this around to keep people informed.
To be clear – fishing and hunting are not actually banned by the COVID 19 restrictions, despite what the police may think. If you are doing it to provide for food and obtain exercise, and obeying the other social distancing rules, then you are within the law, and the police have no business bothering you.
The restrictions say you can leave your house to get food: you’ll be a damn sight lower risk - to yourself, and to others - when you are fishing in a boat than you would be queueing up with 200 other people in the supermarket. And hunting on foot is an excellent form of exercise.
The government is going over the top with their phase three lockdown. It is just absolute nonsense to be trying to ban fishing or hunting.
We are all being forced to put up with these restrictions to try and stop the virus. As responsible adults we all want to do what we can to deal with the crisis with the minimum loss of life.
But the government seems to be getting carried away with the power. If you are following the social distancing rules, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to go fishing or hunting. We need the government to stop treating us like children.
Perhaps in Melbourne there isn’t enough space for everyone – but there is absolutely no reason why in the regions we can’t fish or hunt while keeping safe. As we have seen, this government likes nothing more than locking us out of the bush. Now they have one more excuse.
We need to stay safe – if you break a leg while hunting in the bush you will be pulling people away to rescue you, breaking social distancing and tying up medical resources. But if you can hunt and fish responsibly and behave like an adult, you should be free to go ahead.
If you get harassment from the police for fishing – be polite (after asking them to observe safe distancing behaviour) and explain you have left your house to harvest food. If they order you to stop I recommend complying with their directions, but report it to me so we can get it sorted out.
My colleague and I will talk to the Police Minister and the Health Minister about this. The government does not have a licence to use the emergency powers more than absolutely necessary. You can trust the Liberal Democrats to make sure that the police aren’t making up laws as they go along."