Amateur Hunting Suspended in South Australia after man shot

The South Australian amateur hunting in national parks program Premier Barry O’Farrell uses to compare to his own dangerous policy has been suspended after a man was accidentally shot in the leg earlier this month.

To make matters worse, despite Premier O’Farrell claiming his amateur hunting program is based on that of South Australia, the NSW model deliberately fails to include a number of tough safety restrictions in place in South Australia.

“Mr O’Farrell has been deliberately misleading the public when he claims his dangerous hunting in national parks policy will be based on that of South Australia,” Shadow Environment Minister, Luke Foley said.

“In fact, the South Australian hunting program is far tougher and it has still been suspended because someone was accidentally shot in a national park.

“These tougher restrictions still didn’t stop someone being shot in a national park in South Australia.

“There is absolutely no doubt Barry O’Farrell’s significantly weaker policy in NSW will put public safety at risk.”

The O’Farrell Government internal risk assessment* leaked to the NSW Opposition states:

“Some hunting systems in other states have developed further requirements related to welfare. These include the South Australian the [sic] requirement to limit shooting range to 200 metres, the requirement for accuracy to be demonstrated on a shooting range and a mentoring program for relatively inexperienced shooters.” (p58)

Crucially, these safety measures will not be implemented in NSW.

NSW is not adopting South Australia’s tougher requirements for amateur shooters seeking to hunt in national parks:

“Following successful completion of the theory component, hunters must pass a firearms range based shooting assessment and undertake a probationary period where participation in a field activity is supervised by another accredited hunter.” (p74)

“These safety requirements are not being introduced in NSW.  Mr O’Farrell should stop dishonestly comparing his program with South Australia’s, which operates in only a handful of remote national parks and is far stricter on hunters,” Mr Foley said.