Lipstick on a feral pig: Why NSW bounty-hunter plan should be culled

NSW Premier Chris Minns didn’t announce a plan to fix NSW’s feral animal crisis last week – he floated an idea that would be a taxpayer-funded gift to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, which will actually make the problem worse.

Suggesting bounties for feral pigs is an idea that’s been tried and tested, and hasn’t worked.

Suggesting he is open to supporting bounties for feral pigs, cats and goats might sound like strong leadership, but it’s not. It’s an idea that’s been tried, tested and failed wherever it’s been used for widespread, abundant feral animals in Australia. And I have a real concern it’s being dragged back now for one reason: politics.

In a case of history repeating, there is speculation Labor will support a new law this week to hand the hunting lobby a taxpayer-funded platform disguised as “conservation”, reviving key elements of the discredited Game Council – scrapped in 2013 for poor governance and prioritising hunter interests over public good.

As the CEO of the Invasive Species Council, you might be wondering why I care. Surely any little bit helps when it comes to managing out-of-control feral animals? And surely supporting volunteer hunting efforts will only increase the number of ferals killed?

But let me be clear: Bounties and taxpayer-funded hunting propaganda won’t reduce feral animal numbers. What they will do is take money from effective control programs, incentivise hunters to leave breeding populations or spread ferals into new areas, and increase biosecurity risks and trespass threats to farmers. And it will give the hunting lobby a platform to make sure feral animals keep spreading in state forests and on Crown land.

That isn’t “thinking outside the box”. It’s putting lipstick on a feral pig.

While bounty hunters may be heroes on the big screen, in the real world, bounty schemes simply hand public money to recreational hunters for something they’re already doing – without delivering any additional impact.

To suppress feral pig numbers, you need to remove 70 per cent of the population every year. For cats, it’s 57 per cent. For goats and deer, at least 35 per cent. Bounty programs typically remove between 2 and 10 per cent. That’s not effective control. That’s political theatre.

The Victorian government has spent over $10 million on a fox bounty. Their own review found it made no difference across 96 per cent of the state and most animals caught were juveniles that would be unlikely to survive to adulthood. Meanwhile, there are reports of hunters relocating animals to new areas just to farm the reward. Fraud, double-counting and perverse incentives are baked into the bounty model.

And no biosecurity agency in the country seriously backs it. Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty doesn’t and neither does her agriculture department. Nor does the Natural Resources Commission, which recently delivered a 150-page report to the premier on how to fix invasive species management in the state – with no recommendation of bounties. And let’s not forget, at last year’s NSW Farmers Association conference, Minns himself dismissed the idea outright. So why the backflip?

Minns hasn’t said - but the timing raises real questions. Because the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party wants it – at a time when Labor needs their support in the Upper House.

I’m concerned this could be policy by backroom deal, not expert advice. And regardless, the policy’s insulting to everyone who actually wants to tackle the feral animal crisis in good faith.

Of course farmers are frustrated. They’re seeing paddocks rooted up by pigs, deer stripping trees and goats tearing through dry country. Our wildlife and rivers are being trashed, trampled and polluted. But the answer isn’t a half-baked bounty scheme and a new shooting propaganda unit – it’s properly funded, long-term invasive species programs that actually work.

We know what those look like: aerial shooting, co-ordinated baiting and trapping, remote surveillance, landscape-scale planning, expert-led operations and long-term funding. Not always glamorous. Not always quick. But effective.

Recreational hunters can help, yes – but only as part of something bigger and more strategic. In South Australia, skilled shooters support its Bounceback Program, backing up aerial culling of goats. That’s real collaboration. It works because it’s strategic, not opportunistic.

If Minns wants to lead on invasive species, he should start by listening to his own agriculture minister and the Natural Resources Commission, not the shooting lobby.

Jack Gough is the CEO of the Invasive Species Council

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