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Hunting Bill set to fail in Parliament |
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NPA today welcomed the decision by the NSW Government to withdraw support for the Game and Feral Animal Control Amendment Bill that means the Shooters Party plans to expand recreational hunting in NSW to national parks and native animals will fail.
The Game and Feral Animal Control Amendment Bill 2009 is set to be voted on this week in NSW Parliament before a two-month recess. The Shooters Party admitted today that the Bill had been subject to two years of discussions between the NSW Government and the Shooters Party. The public first learnt of the plan on 3 June 2009 when the Bill was introduced into Parliament.
In a dramatic few days, Labor was presented with a choice of supporting the Shooters Party’s draconian Bill in return for passage of key Government legislation through the finely-balanced Upper House of Parliament.
“The public response to this issue has been overwhelming, causing Labor MPs such as Steve Whan, Member for Monaro, to declare he would not support the Bill,” said Andrew Cox, NPA Executive Officer.
“In less than four days we received over 900 responses to our call to lobby the NSW Government, the Opposition, The Greens and Fred Nile MLC to oppose the Bill.”
“We praise the NSW Government for agreeing to oppose the Bill, supporting its pre-election commitment to oppose shooting in national parks and to stand up to trading away the environment for Shooters Party support,” said Mr Cox.
“The NSW Opposition and The Greens were strong opponents of the Bill.”
“The public is passionate that they find hunting in national parks offensive, recreational killing of native birds and animals dangerous and claims that recreational hunting benefits feral animal control false.”
“During the debate, feral animal control experts have been speaking out about how the government-funded Game Council, run by recreational hunters, is undermining genuine feral animal control efforts.”
“The Game Bill arose from a five-year review of the original 2002 Game legislation. There was no public consultation, and only a one-sided in-house review by the pro-hunting Game Council and supporters of recreational hunting within the Dept. of Primary Industries.”
“This raises serious question about the independence and usefulness of the five-year legislative review process.”
“The proposals in this Bill should be buried once and for all, and a credible review of the Game Council and it value should now be conducted.”
Contact details:
Andrew Cox on 02 9299 0000 or 0438 588 040
More info: conservation/hunting_in_nps/hunting.htm
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