27 international, national and NSW groups oppose game bill
Monday, 11 March 2002 10:00
Major international, national, and NSW environment, animal welfare and gun control groups have come together to demand the withdrawal of a State Government Bill that hands vast powers, land and opportunities over to recreational hunters in NSW.
The groups are furious that the Carr Government is pushing the Game Bill for the exclusive benefit of shooters and hunters and to the detriment of the public, wildlife, animal welfare and environment.
Total Environment Centre director Jeff Angel said the Bill "was nothing short of a free ticket to shooters, hunters, and pig doggers to carry out their blood sport almost anywhere in NSW with the only regulation involved being carried out by the hunters themselves. It's like giving Dracula the keys to the blood bank. There is so much political fuel in this issue there are significant political dangers for the Government."
"The Bill allows almost any bit of public land to be secretly declared available for hunting, at the exclusion of the public and to the detriment of wildlife and the environment. It undermines pest control programs, and undermines and amends a multitude of other Acts and land agencies in the control, monitoring, licencing and regulation of hunters," said Mr Angel.
World League for Protection of Animals spokesperson Halina Thompson said the Bill "facilitates and encourages animal cruelty with its endorsement of any method, instrument or animal being used in the stalking, hunting, capture, and killing of so called "game" animals. And it also endangers other animals that aren't listed as game"
There is no chance to independently monitor or regulate against animal cruelty, it undermines the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and its very nature encourages cruelty. No animal, whether it is listed or not, is native or introduced, will be safe from harm under this bill" said Ms Thompson.
Gun Control Australia chairman Randall Marshall said "this Bill takes away the responsibility of the parliament for shooter misbehaviour and greatly reduces the accountability of parliamentarians to the public. As such it is a deplorably irresponsible piece of potential legislation and, with its creation of a shooter dominated Game Council, seeks to give gratuitous hunters a degree of legitimacy" .
"Our experience over several decades is that shooting organisations pretend to be concerned with public safety as a diversion from their real aim which is to ensure as great an access to guns as possible. We point out that this Bill is likely to lead to an increase in the NSW gun inventory." Mr Marshall said.
