Hunters stick to their guns on national parks bill

A Shooters Party bill before the NSW parliament would permit the hunting of native and non-native animals including kangaroos and 28 species of birds like galahs, cockatoos and swans in most of the state’s 780 national parks and reserves.

Opponents argue the legislation will create a threat to public safety while supporters argue it’s essential to control feral animals like foxes,rabbits, goats, pigs and wild cats and dogs.

“The bill’s not so much about going and blasting the hell out of native wildlife, it’s about getting in there and controlling that feral stuff,” Molong recreational hunter Kevin Rodwell said yesterday.

“We don’t go around at night in a four wheel drive with a spotlight and full of grog killing everything in sight. The last time I went hunting for two days I fired just one shot, it’s not a Rambo-style thing where you get in there and start laying into them open slather.

“I like my native wildlife as much as the next bloke. The damage these feral animals do to our native wildlife is phenomenal, I’ve shot feral cats the size of a small dog.

What’s proposed is not, as the greenies put it, a wholesale open slather.

“I wouldn’t say the damage to people is negligible but it’s certainly low.”

Another supporter of the bill, Orange resident Tony Evans, said opponents based their arguments on emotion instead of fact.

“You would have more chance of being shot in our major cities than in a national park,” he said.

“The parks and forests of our state are in many cases overrun with feral animals and those that border our farms are constantly giving a headache to landholders due to livestock being attacked by these animals.”

Elements of the bill will have the support of Member for Orange Russell Turner when the legislation is put to a vote as early as Thursday.

The Opposition has moved amendments to block the hunting of native animals in national parks but to support the controlled shooting of feral animals.

“Having had a property that backed onto the Canobolas recreation area and having found sheep with their sides ripped out by wild dogs I support licensed shooters in national parks to control those feral animals,” Mr Turner said.

“Yes there is a risk and I don’t like guns myself but I understand there’s a need for them in certain occasions.”

Mr Rodwell, Mr Evans and Mr Turner’s comments come after Orange resident Amanda Lockwood expressed her concerns about the Game and Feral Animal Control Amendment Bill in Saturday’s Central Western Daily.