Premier opens the door on feral pig bounties. Now the Shooters’ Party wants a ‘right to hunt’

NSW Labor denies it has struck a deal with the conservative Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party to support paying bounty hunters to shoot feral animals, despite Premier Chris Minns’ abrupt decision to change the government’s stance on the controversial policy.

Minns raised eyebrows last week when an interview on FM radio in Coffs Harbour about flooding on the Mid North Coast took an abrupt detour in which he announced he was open to paying hunters to kill feral pigs and cats.

Feral pigs dig for food with their snouts, releasing huge amounts of carbon trapped in the soil.

It marked a departure from the government’s previous position on bounties – a long-time demand of the Shooters’ – and the timing piqued the interest of MPs negotiating over Labor’s bill to cut benefits from the state’s workers’ compensation scheme.

The rumour mill went further into overdrive the following day when the Shooters introduced a bill to establish a “hunting authority” to replace an existing expert panel which advises the government on game and pest management. The bill – which would also establish a “right to hunt” – would create a “conservation hunting licence” and allow hunting groups to nominate four of the authority’s seven voting members.

Labor has yet to say whether it will support the bill, but multiple sources said Shooters MPs had been telling colleagues it has their support. Senior ministers have been meeting to discuss the plan with the minor party.

Labor has also been talking down similarities between the new authority and the former NSW Game Council, which was abolished in 2013 after a series of scandals.

NSW Premier Chris Minns opened a can of worms on regional radio.Credit: Sam Mooy

Both the government and the Shooters Party denied striking a deal. A spokeswoman for the premier said regional MPs, as well as organisations including the NSW Farmers Association, had also called for bounties.

“There is no deal,” the spokeswoman said.

Shooters Party leader Robert Borsak said the Conservation Hunting Bill had been in development for two years, and that it had been the subject of extensive discussions with Environment Minister Penny Sharpe and Minns.

“People will say this legislation is just a pay-off to the Shooters. That criticism will inevitably come,” Borsak said.

He denied the party had agreed to a quid pro quo with the government, including over support for its workers’ compensation legislation.

However, the timing of Minns’ intervention prompted comparisons with a Coalition deal with the Shooters in 2012 which expanded the power of the Game Council and allowed hunters into national parks. That deal was widely seen as securing the support of the Shooters for its electricity privatisation legislation and, coincidentally, its own workers’ compensation reforms.

In the seven-minute interview on Coffs Harbour radio, the only other topic besides flooding was the feral brumby population in Kosciuszko National Park, more than 900 kilometres away.

The host, Michael Moffett, asked Minns: “Parliament is sitting this week and there was a bit around, and I heard a bit last night too about the Kosciuszko National Park and brumbies and things like that, the numbers, are they going to stay where they are, what’s the go? What’s next?”

Minns responded with a detailed answer, in which he also raised the issue of bounties: “It’s about time we start thinking about novel ways of reducing the feral goat, the feral pig, the feral cat population, which has really taken over a lot of parks,” he said.

“We should be open to bounties and other things, because we’ve got a lot of recreational shooters out there that are actually getting rid of a lot of the pests roaming across our native vegetation.”

The government would not comment on whether a pilot bounty hunting program would be included in the upcoming budget. But Minns’ comments are a departure from Labor’s former position.

Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty has repeatedly criticised bounty hunting in the past, and sources speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal government process said advice from the Department of Primary Industries said bounties presented risks such as fraud and trespassing.

As recently as February, the minister said as much in a statement to the ABC in which she shot down the prospect of the government supporting such a policy.

Bounties have a mixed reputation. The NSW Farmers Association welcomed Minns’ intervention, but NSW Invasive Species Council chief executive Jack Gough said such a plan would waste money and would make no difference to the numbers of feral animals.

“For decades, the Shooters Party has worked to undermine effective, science-based feral deer and pig control in NSW. So it is unsurprising that they are once again pushing for subsidies for recreational hunting at the expense of real action to protect the environment from the impact of feral animals,” he said.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.