Hot on the heels of their fucking over of farming communities in Gloucester and the Liverpool Plains the Shooters Party are at it again. Their latest act of bastardry is introducing a bill called the "Game and Feral Animal Control Amendment Bill 2009", now the aim of this bill is:
Overview of Bill
The object of this Bill is to amend the Game and Feral Animal Control Act 2002
(the Act) as follows:
(a) to enable the Minister responsible for national park estate land to make that land available for the hunting of game animals by licensed game hunters,
(b) to expand the list of game animals that may be hunted in accordance with the Act and, in the case of any native game animals that are listed, to impose special requirements in relation to the hunting of those animals by licensed game hunters,
(c) to provide for the operation of private game reserves under the authority of a licence granted by the Game Council,
(d) to make it an offence to approach persons who are lawfully hunting on declared public hunting land or to interfere with persons lawfully hunting game animals,
(e) to make a number of other amendments of an administrative, minor or consequential nature.
Basically they want to open up National Parks for "recreational hunting" (on top of the 2 million hectares of public land they already have available) and want to establish private game reserves where feral animals can be released for the purpose of hunting (and they'd never get out would they?). The Shooters Party and the Game Council like to claim that the hunting is good for controlling feral animals (and at the same time maintain that it helps keep a healthy population of native "game species" - how does that work?) the Invasive Species Council has examined their claims:
Feral animals killed 2007-08 2006-07 Total (average/year)
Deer 410 291 701 (350)
Foxes 724 519 1243 (622)
Goats 1037 1039 2076 (1038)
Pigs 1081 983 2064 (1032)
Cats 136 143 279 (139)
Dogs 55 51 106 (53)
Rabbits 4076 2078 6154 (3077)
Hares 242 244 486 (243)
Total 7761 5348 13,109 (6554)
Given the funding given to the Game Council this equates to $323/feral animal killed in State Forests, obviously a very effective excercise.
So lets look at a few more things in the proposed bill:
Offence of failing to contain game animals in game reserve
(1) The holder of a private game reserve licence must not cause or allow a game animal (other than a bird) to escape from the private game reserve to which the licence relates.
Maximum penalty: 100 penalty units in the case of a corporation or 50 penalty units in the case of an individual.
(2) It is a defence to prosecution for an offence under subsection (1) if it is demonstrated that the defendant took all reasonable steps to prevent the escape of the game animal and, after the escape, took all reasonable steps to capture or kill the game animal.
So it's fine for feral birds to escape from a private game park and a maximum penalty of 100 penalty units should your stock of feral animals escape, a penalty unit is (from memory) $110 dollars so for a corporation the most it will cost you is $11000 or an individual $5500.
"But we went an hunted them after they escaped but they got away" which is where part 2 comes in, great excuse, fuck all responsibility. Lovely.
And one of the ammendments of a minor nature is:
[8] Section 8 Membership and procedure of Game Council
Omit “New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council” from section 8 (2) (e). Insert instead “Minister administering the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983”.
Sounds like a great bit of legislation. I'll have a bit more of a read of it and throw up some links later (and tidy up the post) but if you feel like writing to someone, here's a start:
The Hon. Ian Macdonald, MLCMinister for Primary Industries Email: macdonald.office@macdonald.minister.nsw.gov.au
Street Address: Governor Macquarie Tower, Level 33, 1 Farrer Place, SYDNEY NSW 2000
The Hon. Carmel Tebbutt, MP Minister for Climate Change & the Environment
Email: dp.office@tebbutt.minister.nsw.gov.auStreet Address: Governor Macquarie Tower, Level 30, 1 Farrer Place, SYDNEY NSW 2000
5 comments:
It's up for debate next Tuesday 23rd.
McDonald, Tebbett and Rees are the key people to ask think to have a couple of minutes of reasonable thought.
This is a deal to sell the lotteries off - the government needs the shooters for that - hence this dirty deal.
Unbelievably dopey.
I will explain game sustainable management and pest control for you.
The bit you did not understand was.
"claim that the hunting is good for controlling feral animals (and at the same time maintain that it helps keep a healthy population of native "game species" - how does that work?)"
Feral animals are shot on an opportunity basis when ever possible. There is no season or limit as reducing numbers is the aim.
Game species are managed scientifically so any harvest is sustainable. Bag limits are set and seasons are set to ensure maximum opportunity for breeding. Improving breeding sites and habitat and extra predator control ensures good populations due to increased survival of young.
The opportunity to use volunteer conservation hunters in National parks to control feral pests would be of great benefit to our native wildlife. Any claims that killing feral animals is bad are lies.
"Best practice feral animal control"
With bows and arrows?
These guys like to kill things. "Conservation hunting" my arse.
Conservation hunter...
Shoot an elephant through the trunk and ear first; have your professional hunter have a go at it; detroy its spine with the next shot and finally kill it on shots 6 and 7.
Yes bwana...
http://forums.nitroexpress.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=85927&Main=85919
The poster boy for NSW Game Council. How many politcal party's have been bought off with a $3 million a year grant so they can get mates on committees and go for a fucking big shoot up?
City and coastal people hunt animals that live in our oceans and estuaries for sport, recreation and produce. Rural people hunt animals and birds that live on the land for the same reasons.
The majority of our populations, politicians and media live on the coast and promote there hunting activities as fun. They portray what rural people do in a negative fashion to feel better about themselves.
Hunting is bad, people who hunt are bad I do not hunt therefore I must be good.
I hate discrimination and there is no reason why hunters should not have reasonable access to suitable Crown lands whether it be State Forest or National Parks to participate in there legal hunting pursuits.
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