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Minns’ ‘dodgy deal’ with Shooters Party under the microscope at NSW Parliament inquiry

The Invasive Species Council says the Minns Government has serious questions to answer as an upper house inquiry begins today into a Shooters Party Bill that would create a taxpayer-funded propaganda unit for the shooting lobby and lock in the permanent mismanagement of state forests and crown land as game parks.

‘Handing the Shooters Party a taxpayer-funded propaganda unit and locking in the mismanagement of state forests and crown land as game parks for a few upper house votes is short-sighted,’ Invasive Species Council CEO Jack Gough said. 

‘Our native wildlife, Australian landscapes and agriculture are too precious to be used as political bargaining chips.

‘Let’s be clear – recreational hunting is not effective feral animal control and this deal risks undermining existing programs that are effective.

‘For the last 20 years, effective management of feral animals in state forests has been stopped by the shooting lobby who have been keen to see feral deer spread across the state for the sake of their hobby. They have always wanted game parks to replace national parks.

‘Sadly, our 2 million hectares of State Forests have been allowed to become breeding grounds for feral animals, with little to no government control taking place. The proposed Bill will lock in that mismanagement forever.

‘We’re urging the Minns Government to walk away from this dangerous and misleading proposal before more damage is done.

‘NSW needs a boost to professional, strategic feral animal control – not a political deal dressed up as conservation.

‘I look forward to giving this evidence and hope that sanity, science and sense can prevail over dodgy backroom deals. ‘

Media inquiries: (02) 8006 5004

Background: 

  • The Game Council of New South Wales was a body corporate established under the Game and Feral Animal Control Act 2002. It was established for political reasons – when the Shooters Party held the balance of power in the NSW Legislative Council. Its statutory objects were to:
    • provide for the effective management of introduced species of game and feral animals  
    • promote responsible and orderly hunting of those game animals on public and private land and of certain pest animals on public land. 
  • Hunters licenced by the Game Council were given access to more than 2 million hectares of state forests. 
  • In 2013 the Game Council was abolished because of serious governance problems. At the time the Game Council employed 21 staff and had received >$20 million in funding from the NSW Government over a decade.
  • In 2013, the NSW Government commissioned a review of the Game Council by a retired public servant after the acting chief executive has engaged in illegal hunting in a Game Council vehicle. The Dunn review led to the abolition of the Game Council and its replacement by an advisory body, the NSW Game Board. 
  • The 2013 Dunn Review, which led to the Game Council’s abolition, specifically criticised that body for trying to ‘reinvent its statutory objects with a focus on the use of the term conservation hunting’.
  • The scathing review found that the Game Council had severe governance deficiencies and that the risks for government should be regarded as unacceptable. It found that Game Council lacked:
    • an overarching governance framework
    • a strategic planning framework
    • skills, tools and resources to ensure effective compliance
    • an internal regulatory compliance program 
    • an approved risk management framework
    • an adequate policy framework.

If passed, the new Bill will:

  • establish a new ‘Conservation Hunting Authority’ stacked with shooting lobby interests – reviving key elements of the now-defunct Game Council, which was abolished in 2013 after a scathing independent review found serious governance failures and unacceptable risks to the public interest,
  • require public land managers to consider any impacts on recreational shooting before undertaking land management decisions including aerial shooting, baiting or nature conservation,
  • Open up at least 23 crown land areas of greater than 400 hectares to recreational shooting.

Related Content

NSW Parliament inquiry confirms: Aerial culling key to protecting wildlife from feral horse damage
Coalition and cross bench combine to send controversial Shooters Bill to inquiry after late-night vote
Counting horses in Kosciuszko: a critique of the ‘independent’ survey

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    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]


    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]