Stakeholder and community research

The purpose of the research is to help the GMA and its hunting industry partners to develop effective communications materials for improving hunter success while reducing waterfowl wounding. Your feedback will help us to ensure the information provided supports you to do this.

How to participate in the online focus groups?

The online focus groups will be 1.5 hours in duration and will be conducted in mid-November. Selected participants will receive a $110 reimbursement payment as a thank you for their time and involvement.
Duck hunters can register interest to participate using the link below.
https://ap1se.voxco.com/SE/83/6048/

ORIMA Research will randomly select participants and contact them via telephone or email in early to mid-November to arrange participation in the online focus groups.

How to participate in the online survey?

The online survey will be sent via email in early December to hunters who hold a Victorian Game Licence endorsed to hunt duck. Participation in the survey is voluntary and confidential.

Who will be conducting the research?

To ensure independence, a market and social research firm, ORIMA Research, has been engaged by the GMA to conduct the research.

Contact details will be provided to ORIMA by the GMA solely for the purposes of this research. Details will not be shared with another third-party or used by ORIMA for any other purpose. ORIMA will treat all responses, comments and information as strictly confidential and anonymous.

Privacy

This research will be carried out in compliance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cwlth), the Privacy (Market and Social Research) Code 2021 and the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic), including the Information Privacy Principles specified therein.

No individual will be able to be identified from the research. The GMA will not be provided with results that will allow any individual’s responses to be identified.

All information provided will be used for research purposes only.


Any additional queries regarding the project, please contact ORIMA on 1800 654 585 or GMAResearch@orima.com or the GMA on 136 186.

In 2025, the GMA asked ORIMA Research to help us better understand how Victorian Game Licence holders prefer to receive information.

We wanted to know:

• How well our current communication and engagement is working
• Where licence holders go for information
• What types of information they want and how they want to be communicated with.

We invited licence holders with a registered email address to complete an online survey. Almost 5,000 people responded, and another 20 took part in online focus groups.

What we heard

• The GMA is a key source of trusted information, especially on hunting rules and regulations such as season dates, bag limits, permitted hunting areas, legal hunting methods, and licensing requirements.
• Game Licence holders most often look for information on the GMA website, but also turn to friends, family, colleagues, online searches, hunting associations, clubs, and Facebook.
• The type of information people most want from us is game hunting laws and regulations, including when and where to hunt.
• The most preferred communication channels are the GMA website, direct email, Facebook and SMS updates

What’s next

We’re using this feedback to make improvements—providing clearer, more direct communications and continuing to update the GMA website so it remains the go-to source for accurate information.

The GMA commissioned ORIMA Research to conduct stakeholder sentiment research to measure levels of awareness and understanding of the GMA and its role amongst key stakeholder groups, as well as to gain insights into perceptions and attitudes towards the GMA and its performance.

The GMA surveyed partner agencies, peak bodies and a small group of licensed game hunters. Participants were invited by email to complete an online survey, and in-depth interviews were conducted with some participants.

The primary objectives of the research were to understand stakeholder perceptions of the GMA’s role and its performance against key performance indicators, identify issues related to the productivity and effectiveness of GMA’s relationships with its stakeholders and establish a baseline measure of stakeholder satisfaction to allow tracking over time.

For more information, read the Stakeholder sentiment research 2021 report.

The Game Management Authority has undertaken a Benchmarking Project with Australian and international regulators.

We had 52 regulators / law enforcement agencies respond to the survey, from around the world from areas of money laundering, gaming and liquor, sports integrity, natural resources, building and construction, occupational health and safety, energy, financial services and local councils.

The survey asked other regulators about their administrative processes, resources, their involvement in investigations, and the outcomes of serious / significant Investigations.

The overall aim of the project is to establish a benchmark for best practice, so that we can monitor and measure our own regulatory performance. The results of the survey help to develop a deeper understanding of the various approaches that regulators use when conducting investigations.

Read the full report on the Investigations benchmarking project 2020.

In 2018, the Game Management Authority commissioned Australian Survey Research Group (ASR) to develop, conduct and analyse a survey of Victorian Game Hunting Licence holders which focused on how hunters want to be communicated with and what game hunting topics are of importance to them.

Almost 4000 Victorian Game Licence holders responded to the survey. The invitation list was based on people aged over 16 years, and who had a valid Victorian Game Licence.

The following report presents the results of a survey conducted in June 2018.

Connecting with Victorian hunters - report of findings

In 2023, the GMA commissioned ORIMA Research to conduct a survey of Victorian communities to measure levels of awareness and understanding of the GMA and its role. The research also aimed to gain insights into perceptions and attitudes towards the GMA and its performance.

The GMA uses stakeholder and community research to inform its approach to stakeholder and community engagement. This research establishes a baseline measure of community understanding of the GMA’s role to allow tracking over time.

While the majority of respondents were able to correctly identify aspects of the GMA’s role and responsibilities (seven correct answers out of 13, on average), respondents had more difficulty recognising whether certain misconceptions were part of the GMA’s role (such as managing game habitats and public land).

Satisfaction with GMA was higher among those who demonstrated greater familiarity with the GMA’s functions and those who had more positive perceptions of the impact of game hunting.

Respondents who were aware of the GMA, and lived in areas where hunting occurs, were more positive about the GMA being fair and making decisions based on the best available advice and evidence.

More generally, the results show that we could improve community perceptions of the GMA’s services by raising awareness of our role and the work that we do.

For more information, read the Community research 2023 report.

The survey questionnaire and respondent demographics are available at Community research 2023 - appendices.