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NSW government urged to reject Shooters Party deal over ‘dangerous and misleading’ hunting bill

The Invasive Species Council is urging the Minns Government to reject a dangerous and misleading Bill that would hand the hunting lobby a government-funded propaganda platform under the guise of ‘conservation’ and undermine effective feral animal management on state forests and crown land.

The Council understands that a deal is actively being considered for the Labor Party to support the proposed Game and Feral Animal Legislation Amendment (Conservation Hunting) Bill 2025 in exchange for votes in the NSW Legislative Council. The Bill is expected to be rushed through both houses of parliament this week and is in addition to a deal over taxpayer funding for a feral animal bounty scheme.

If passed, the 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.

‘It is shocking to think that Premier Minns might seriously do a deal with the Shooters Party to bring back a new version of the disgraced Game Council,’ Invasive Species Council CEO Jack Gough said. 

‘It is no surprise the Shooters Party want to set up a taxpayer-funded propaganda arm for the hunting lobby to push misinformation and undermine science-based feral animal control. However, I would have thought that Labor would have learnt their lesson after the dodgy Game Council they set up in a previous deal with the Shooters Party went up in flames.

‘Recreational hunting is not conservation. It rarely delivers environmental benefits, and in many cases actively obstructs professional control programs. You don’t reduce invasive species by doing a bit of weekend pig shooting. You need coordinated, expert-led programs like aerial shooting, baiting and trapping – the kind of methods the Shooters Party oppose.

‘This Bill will also boost the influence of hunters over management of state forests and other crown land to stop effective feral animal control, including aerial shooting and baiting, so that feral deer and pig numbers can stay high to support hunting opportunities.

‘This is a political trade-off dressed up as conservation policy. It’s not just bad science – it’s bad governance. 

‘Giving the Shooters Party a publicly funded mouthpiece to spread misinformation is a dangerous precedent. It will see decisions driven by lobbying power, not biosecurity risk or environmental need.

‘Once again, we’re seeing an attempt to entrench hunting access on public land, without regard for the damage done to native wildlife or the integrity of professional control programs. 

‘We know from bitter experience what happens when hunter interests are put ahead of expert advice – it’s exactly why the Game Council was abolished in the first place.

‘This Bill puts politics before conservation, ideology before evidence and lobbyists before the public good. It’s a recipe for failure, and the NSW government should not be complicit in it.’

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.

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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]