[excelpoint]

Benny Victoria is definately NOT looking at closing down the duck season, in fact this years season saw an increase in bag limit. It is still totally legal to shoot ducks in NSW as long as you purchase a $35 mittigation license, which is a much better way for shooters as there is no bag limits, it just means you need to find mainly rice growers to hunt their property. Licensing is not that much different to what it was before just a little less choice. You are still legally allowed to own auto shotguns but only for clay shooting. Also we now have a Game council set up in Australia who do most of the advising to the government on season availabilty and bag limits etc instead of the beurecrats that used to do it. Another point of intrest also is that NSW has just recently opened up the majority of its state forests and public land to the hunting of pest animals, a first in nearly 30 years. Hunting in Australia has certainly taken a huge step forward over the last couple of years. As for the hand gun side of things you are still able to own one as long as you are a member of a pistol club. It does take a fair bit longer but that has always been the case.