Hi All Can someone please tell me where the detail about hunting in NPs can be found? Can one read the legislation somewhere? Can we find out the details of the proposals? We visited Gluepot last year just after it had been closed for several days so that aerial baiting and shooting could take place. Surely NSW politicians are not dumb enough to allow parks to be open when shooting takes place. And then somewhere there must be a list of what can and can’t be taken. How do I get hold of this information?
Thanks Christine
Christine Melrose 0407705140 cmelrose099@gmail.com ===============================
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Excellent, and I agree entirely.
One comment on the paragraph ‘animals subject to shooting disturbance are likely to become more wary pigs and some deer species, for example, forage more at night than during the day and may inhabit more secure areas within their range or move elsewhere’ http://www.invasives.org.au/documents/file/fs_rechunt2_NSWvfacts.pdf.
In the early 1990s feral water buffalo were culled in the Top End as part of the Brucellosis and Tuberculosis Campaign (BTEC). I wasn’t involved in this program but knew many who were. According to my contacts buffalo began to feed at night.
They also became very shy compared with the animals I shot when working with a pet meat firm in the late 1970s. And according to semi-traditional relatives on outstations they are more dangerous. I’m not sure why this would be. Perhaps it’s that they regard any human as a threat.
Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow 1/7 Songlark Street, Bakewell, NT 0832 043 8650 835
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Hello Christine,
The relevant legislation can be found here:
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/nswbills.nsf/0/c8afc0c4709e478bca25788e0005e862/$FILE/b2011-163-d18-House.pdf
Also relevant to the shooting of Australian Native birds is:
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/nswbills.nsf/0/7adf4bd7ff7246e0ca257a5a0020e0b1/$FILE/66541722.pdf/b2012-109-d08-House.pdf
The official NPWS position is here: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/pestsweeds/spc.htm
The Shooters agenda can be found on this page: http://www.shootersandfishers.org.au/
A very objective scientific analysis of the arguments can be read here: http://www.invasives.org.au/documents/file/fs_rechunt2_NSWvfacts.pdf
Political comment can be found here: http://davidshoebridge.org.au/2012/06/21/game-and-feral-animal-control-act-legislation-debate/
The current balance of power in the NSW parliament is that the O’Farrell government have to have the support of both the Shooters and the Christians to get their legislation passed through both houses. The Shooters are very clever people and they are using this situation to enact the maximum of their agenda through the parliament. Both the Liberals and Labor desperately want to sell off the Electricity Generating Power Stations so the will be in private hands and return nice profits to their owners and to the owners of the coal mines supplying them. This also puts off any need (in their eyes) to build solar and gas power stations. Moral considerations about global climate change do not enter into the minds of these people.
The Shooters have successfully sold the idea that using NSW National Parks for their blood sport is a good thing. They are selling the idea that their shooting will make an impact on the numbers of feral animals in our national parks, a concept thoroughly debunked in the fact sheet from the Invasive Species Council http://www.invasives.org.au/ in the link above. The Murdock press (News Limited) and the commercial TV stations have uncritically pushed this line. Wonderfully Orwellian terms such as “Conservation Hunting” and “Supplementary Pest Control” are being fed to the public. The shooters have no intention of reducing the number of feral animals in NSW. In fact everything they want is directed to /increasing/ the number of feral animals so as to make their blood sport easier. See, for example, the Game Council http://www.gamecouncil.nsw.gov.au/ web site where, at the moment, shooting of feral deer is illegal. This is because it is deer breeding season and shooting of pregnant deer will reduce the number of deer.
The staff of the National Parks and Wildlife Service are overwhelmingly opposed to the idea of letting the shooters into National Parks. However the legislation is phrased such the the key decisions and day to day control of shooting in NSW is in the hands of the NSW Game Council http://www.gamecouncil.nsw.gov.au/, an organisation run by shooters for shooters but funded by we taxpayers.
The list of National Parks in which shooting will be allowed has been phrased as all NSW National Parks and Nature Reserves /excep//t/ certain ones which all happen to be close to Barry O’Farrell’s electorate in Sydney. In my area, the electorate of the Minister for Environment (including National Parks), Robyn Parker, all National Parks are on the list to be considered for shooting. Some, such as Myall Lakes NP, have no feral animal problem at the moment. I have no proof but there are persistent stories that the shooters are transporting deer etc to new locations so that they will have something to kill.
We must have proper regimes for the control and if possible, total elimination, of feral animals in our National Parks. This involves well understood methods including mustering where possible, baiting, trapping and, usually lastly, shooting from helicopters. This should be done by professionals in the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Most people would consider it ridiculous to let unemployed abattoir workers to assist in hospitals to reduce the operations waiting time. Similarly it would be silly to let graffiti sprayers into Art Galleries to reduce the cost of repainting the walls. Letting goons with guns into National Parks to “control feral pests” is equally silly.
Cheers,
Jim Smart East Maitland
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