It is true that some 20,000 licensed, law abiding hunters
have now been locked out of public lands and that the future of hunting is on
shaky ground and it would be of little surprise that there is strong resentment
within that group – and shooters and hunters generally.
The effect though will echo throughout regional NSW.
The recently released Public Benefit Assessment Report of
the Game Council’s activities in the 12 months to April 2013 was glowing in its
assessment of the benefit restricted and game licensed hunters have presented.
For regional NSW, the annual economic injection amounts to
almost $65 million – all of which is spent outside of the major metropolitan
areas. In a time where economic hardship is a grim reality for many smaller
towns and shires, in a time when orchards are being ripped from the ground, in
a time when huge corporations are buying up vast tracts of formerly family
farmed land, every cent of that $65m will be sorely missed. What the knock-on
effect will be, only time will reveal.
The Assessment also revealed that the impact of restricted
licensed hunters on public lands, that is State Forests, is so great Forests
NSW now no longer spends any funds worthy of mention on feral and pest animal
control. In fact the lost opportunity to Forests NSW is now approaching $2.4
million – a figure that one can now assume they will have to try and find to
discharge their duty to continue to control feral and pest animals. The reality
is that Mr O’Farrell has overseen the end of the halcyon days for Forests NSW.
His decision also demonstrates his absolute contempt for
primary producers. In the weeks since the abolition of the Game Council, there
have been articles in various media outlets warning of the pending explosion of
feral pigs, of the very real threat to rangeland wool growing from wild dogs
and even just the other day a report of a young boy being gored by a wild pig.
In this instance Mr O’Farrell has turned his back on primary producers and has
hung them out to dry.
But the deceit runs deeper, the contempt more venomous. A
number of ministers have been quoted as having the ambition to introduce a
tenure-blind approach to pest animal control: one set of rules for National
Parks, for State Forests and for public land. This wouldn’t be such a bad thing
if they objectively assessed the different methods currently employed across
the various tenures and implemented the most effective and most efficient, but
given Mr O’Farrell’s summary beheading of the most successful and most
efficient, it would appear a cold day in Hell would be more likely than this
model being implemented across all tenures.
If it is to be believed the Government want to impose the
grossly inefficient model of pest animal management that is currently proposed
for National Parks across freehold land - across your land. They cite the model
of bushfire management as the successful big brother whose footsteps pest
animal control will follow, but one only needs to look to the Warrumbungles and
the catastrophic fire that razed 95% of the National Park to glean an
indication how successful National Parks has been in managing bushfires.
But the most telling fact in this sordid tale is the reason
for all that is listed above. If there were serious, life threatening, corrupt
or criminal undercurrents at work in the Game Council, one may understand Mr
O’Farrell’s decision. If there were a history of injuries and deaths then it
may be justifiable. But we are not. In over 80,000 hunting days by some 20,000
restricted license hunters, there was not a single serious injury reported, let
alone a fatality.
In essence the Game Council was the Government’s highest
performing unit. Yes, there were issues with governance but these were not
insurmountable by any stretch of the imagination. All that was needed was
additional funding. To put it bluntly, Mr O’Farrell’s decision was akin to
shooting your best working dog because he needed his claws trimmed.
This whole affair, for all the bad, also gave us a wonderful
insight into the character of Mr O’Farrell.
If the Shooters and Fishers Party MLC’s are to be believed –
and there’s no reason not to, I haven't seen anything from Mr O'Farrell to deny this – Mr O’Farrell gave them his word that he would
consult with them on the findings of the Dunn report prior to any announcement
or policy shift being made. The reality though could not have been further from
what was promised. Instead Messrs Brown and Borsack did not find out until the
decision had been made and the story was breaking across media outlets.
I want to stress this, because it goes a long way in
highlighting Mr O’Farrell’s character: he did not make any outlandish or
radical promises. He did not promise to enshrine hunting on public land time in perpetuity.
He did not promise to grant National Parks to the Shooters & Fishers, he
did not promise to cement the Game Council in its existence forever more.
His promise was a very simple one; it was simply to talk to
those whose constituents would be most affected but he couldn’t even keep that
simple promise.
What sort of leader is it that acts so quickly and so
irrationally that he cannot honour a very simple undertaking given to fellow colleagues? Is this someone who can be trusted? Is it someone the
people of NSW can have confidence in?
And where were the Nationals in all of this? Where were the
flag bearers of regional NSW, the knights of the primary producers? They were
standing there, by his side as he rang the death knell of the most successful
pest animal control program in the history of Australia. They stood there as he
turned his back on regional NSW and threatened to jeopardise $65m of vital
economic benefit. They stood by his side as he gave primary producers the bird
and finally they stood there as he committed a gross act of political bastadry
all in the name of power and authority.
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