By Julian Bajkowski

The New South Wales O’Farrell government has squeezed the trigger on a deeply unpopular push by the shooter’s lobby to gain much greater access to the state’s National Parks, forests and reserves by abolishing the highly controversial Game Council of NSW that had been put in charge of controlling the amateur hunting of pests on state land.

The NSW government has immediately suspended “hunting in all 400 State Forests and 2 Crown Lands areas, pending the transfer of functions and the outcome of a risk assessment.”

The state’s Minister for Primary Industries and Small Business, Katrina Hodgkinson, said on Thursday that the government would adopt the key recommendations of the Governance Review of the Game Council of NSW report by expert Mr Steve Dunn.

The Governance Review was put in place by the Premier after allegations emerged that a senior executive of the game council had participated in illegal shooting.

A key criticism of the Game Council, which was supposed to regulate hunting and shooting, is that it was largely run by gun enthusiasts   some of whom were members of the Shooters Party.

While environmental and animal welfare groups were horrified and adamantly opposed to the introduction of shooting feral pests in national parks, the greater liberalisation of legal gun-related recreation was not exactly a favourite with police or tourism operators either.

Under the NSW government’s new plan, the Game Council will be axed and its “regulatory, enforcement, education, policy and licencing functions” transferred into the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI).

Game Bird Management regulatory functions will continue to be undertaken by the Office of Environment and Heritage in 2013 and be transferred to DPI in 2014.

“The report found the Game Council had an ‘inherent conflict associated with its functions to both represent the interests of hunters, and to regulate their activities’,” Ms Hodgkinson said.

However the government will establish an “advisory Game Board that will undertake stakeholder engagement and representation, advocate hunting, advise on research priorities and commissioning research, and provide independent advice to government.”

Ms Hodgkinson wasted little time in sheeting home the blame for the Game Council’s unorthodox governance arrangements to the previous Labor government.

In a major concession to landholders, especially sheep graziers who have to contend with stock losses from wild dogs, shooting by ‘volunteers’ will still be permitted.

Farmers and some councils had feared that shooting controls on public land that potentially excluded unpaid shooters – sometimes landholders themselves – would not provide sufficient resources to keep feral pests under control.

To that end, NSW Environment Minister Robyn Parker announced what the government calls “a strict regime of controls for the introduction of the supplementary pest control program in the state’s national parks following a rigorous risk assessment process and expert advice.”

At the core of that program is the handing of the regulation and the management of the pest control program, including shooting, to the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

“New measures announced today will ensure volunteer participants are held to an equivalent high standard that currently applies to NPWS staff and contractors,” Ms Parker said.

Ms Parker also announced that the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) will regulate and manage the program.

“New measures announced today will ensure volunteer participants are held to an equivalent high standard that currently applies to NPWS staff and contractors,” Ms Parker said.

“The program will be similar to our hazard reduction operations, which use volunteers with a high level of training and competency, which is equivalent to that held by professional staff.”

Ms Hodgkinson said the direct economic impact of the pest animals had “conservatively” been estimated at $740 million annually.

“Pest animals threaten 40 per cent of fragile biodiversity in NSW. There are 388 threatened species at risk, including 154 plants, 186 animals, 17 endangered populations and 31 endangered ecological communities. It is impossible to place a value on this cost to the environment,” Ms Hodgkinson said.

“Pest animals do not respect boundaries. For the first time, the NSW Government will be able to attack this problem by working with one set of regulations across all lands, irrespective of whether they are National Parks, State Forests, Crown Lands or private property.

After months of trenchant opposition that helped spur on a public backlash against hunting in national parks, The Greens immediately welcomed the move to rein-in sports hunters.

Greens NSW Environment spokesperson Dr Mehreen Faruqi said that Mr O’Farrell had listened to community and that “hunting on public land made no sense from the start.”

“The Greens welcome this decision as a victory for common sense and for all of the spirited grassroots campaigners who made their voices heard on this issue.

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