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NSW Game Council's creeping resumption of native duck shooting season
Thursday 14 May 2009
Greens MP Lee Rhiannon today questioned Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald over the NSW Game Council's apparent resumption of the native duck shooting season in NSW. The Game Council has advertised its intention to run a Game Bird Education Program for recreational hunters who want to begin shooting native ducks.
Native ducks should be safe from recreational shooters
"The Game Council's new Game Bird Education Program signals the resumption of a duck shooting season in NSW," said Ms Rhiannon.
"There has been a dramatic rise in the number of licensed recreational hunters since the Government opened up NSW State Forests to so called conservation hunting in 2006.
"Recreational shooters will now be able to do a Game Council course to learn how to identify non-endangered duck species, including native ducks, that they can shoot.
"Recreational shooters can get a free game bird shooters licence from the Game Council, who will then refer them to farmers at the start of the rice growing season.
"This is the re-introduction of a duck shooting season by stealth.
"In Question Time today Minister Macdonald denied that NSW was re-introducing a duck shooting season, but the evidence is clear that the Game Council is promoting a duck shooting season.
"Under the NSW Game Bird Management Program, set up to control duck numbers on rice farms, 84,634 native ducks from 9 species groups have been shot since 2003.
"Since June 2008 another 1,223 game bird management shooting licences have been issued.
"The Game Council plans to run training courses for newly licensed hunters and then offer them recreational duck shooting opportunities.
"Duck shooting is cruel and inhumane and should not be promoted as a recreational pursuit in NSW.
"The NSW Government needs to urgently review the plans of the Game Council, to stop the proliferation of recreational duck shooting under the guise of conservation hunting," said Ms Rhiannon.
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