CHANGES TO HUNTING LAWS?
Following our success last year in making sensible amendments to gun laws, The Shooters Party is now looking at similar sensible changes to laws governing hunting.

We are working on changes to the current legislation to allow for more and better opportunities for volunteer conservation hunters in New South Wales, and an expansion of the
role of the Game Council so it can more comprehensively co-ordinate hunting activities, on a greater area of public land.

Indeed I gave notice in the Parliament this week that we want to amend the Game and Feral Animal Control Act 2002.

Those who oppose hunting will consider some of our plans to be controversial, so feel free to speak out in support of what we are proposing when you see publicity about them in
the near future.

Politics is the art of the possible, so we are going to push for changes we believe will get majority support in both Houses of Parliament – but there are no guarantees.

We believe NSW would benefit from the setting up of Private Game Reserves whereby hunters, for a fee, can take specified native and feral animals. Such reserves exist in other States and there is no reason our landholders should not share the economic benefits that flow from this industry. In fact the current prohibition is clearly anti-competitive and limits the diversification opportunities for farmers in New South Wales.

We are also determined to see the implementation of a better management regime for game birds in New South Wales.

Another issue to be addressed is the wasteful National Parks and Wildlife Policy of having kangaroos, not taken for commercial purposes, simply left in the paddock to rot. Properly licensed game hunters should be able to cull these kangaroos and be able to use the meat and skins from the animal. This would not impinge on the commercial hunters or their quotas set by NPWS, but would end the senseless waste that the current legislation insists must occur.

While we are working on these issues at the moment they will not be finalised until later in the Parliamentary year.


PIG SHOOTING ON TOORALE COSTS GOVERNMENT $30 A HEAD
Last month Roy asked a question in Parliament about a planned aerial cull of pigs on Toorale Station in outback New South Wales. He wanted to know how much it would cost and why weren’t Game Council licensed conversation hunters invited to carry out the work. Before we got our answer the National Parks and Wildlife Service ranger was reported in the Land as saying the helicopter culling program took 20 hours flying time and also managed to bag a couple of foxes.

The Minister’s official answer came back last week and is as follows:
1. The cost of the helicopter for an aerial shooting operation at Toorale in April 2009 was $986.00 per hour.
2. a. 683 pigs were destroyed during the Ap
b. approximately $32 per pig

3 & 4 The Government faced an immediate assuming ownership and control of Toorale restrictions, suitable alternative arrangemen have been finalised in the time available.

Naturally we’ll be encouraging the Department to use volunteer recreational hunters in the future

MACOSC FUNDING
The second round of MACOSC funding for shooting clubs is expected within the next couple of weeks.
This will see the expenditure of the remaining money from the $600,000 that was allocated for this financial year.
About a dozen clubs will benefit from this latest round of funding, and the Government has committed to continuing funding the program at the current level for the next two financial years.
Applications can be made for safety or compliance upgrades and to generally improve the public’s access to the shooting disciplines. Please contact our office if you need help with preparing a grant application.

GREENS AGAIN TRYING TO BAN HANDGUNS
The Greens are again trying to ban semi-automatic pistols in New South Wales. They say the ban is a “practical way to deal with gang related violence”.
The Shooters Party will not be supporting the Bill if indeed it ever gets to a vote.

OFF TO THE RIVER RED GUMS
We are off to Tocumwal this week and will host a meeting between organisations, which are all appalled at the “secret” deal that the feral greens have stitched up with the Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett.

Garrett circumvented a soon to be tabled EIS commissioned by NSWDPI into the (sustainable) forestry practices in the river red gum forests. He pre-emptively “announced” an immediate halt to logging because of concerns over a local parrot. Not a peep about the 1,000 (irreplaceable) local jobs
that would immediately disappear. So much for Labor’s “working families”.

Robert Brown MLC
The Shooters Party Parliament House Sydney 2000

Keep up the good work Mr Brown and everyone else at Shooters Party

Shooters Party! I like it. Ya'll go get 'em.

We need a "Shooters Party" here in the U.S.A.

quote:

We need a "Shooters Party" here in the U.S.A.

You have its called the Republican party

Lucky NSW for having a shooting party in parliment. Here in queensland they are trying to class deer as a pest under class 1,2 and 3.

quote:

Originally posted by oscarhans:
Lucky NSW for having a shooting party in parliment. Here in queensland they are trying to class deer as a pest under class 1,2 and 3.

From what I've heard locally, they're not 'trying', they already have.