A Highly emotive issue and guaranteed to polarise people, the PSA in NSW is doing an excellent job at feeding the hysteria with talk of flack jackets etc. I will make one post on this subject as it is somewhat off topic, and I will also declare my stake in this as recent former President/current Vice Pres of a hunting club in Victoria.
In Victoria there has been open access to public land hunting "forever", and deer hunting in the alpine nation park since before it was national park. The safety record is very good. There are 22000 game permits issued annually in Vic for deer hunting, and there has been 3 fatalities in the last 55 years, 2 of those three were related party's hunting in proximity. Nobody has been shot on a road/in a car or campsite by a legal hunter ever.
Compared to recreational fishing, where last time I looked at the stats there multiple people dying yearly, due to being swept off the rocks, boating accidents and other misadventures. I do not belittle any death, and do not offer that to trivialize, merely to illustrate that this issue is getting far more media attention than it deserves in terms of the risk attached.
Legal hunting does reduce illegal activity, rogues do what they do under the cover of anonymity and out of sight. Those who do the right thing object to being tarred with the same brush as the poachers and rogues, and secondly, we jump through the hoops and compliance and resent being undercut by poachers etc, so issues are reported and people and dobbed in for doing the wrong thing.
Much of the time hunters are in the bush is the time when nobody else wants to be, the peak deer hunting season runs May through to November, most weekends the only other campers I see are deer hunters in the mountains as it too cold for mum and dad and kids.
Hunting is done away from roads and tracks, as generally game animals are most likely found where people are not, hunters go bush, they do not shoot from roads etc (which is already illegal)
the NSW proposal is 10% of NP being open, not all so represents a drop in the ocean.
Lastly its public land, we all own it, not the NPWS, not the politicians, not the bushwalkers/birdwatchers, not the NPA - all of us, so why should a legal healthy and proven safe passtime not be allowed, its no different to locking campers and 4wd out of areas.
The media love to portray the redneck yobbo hunters, and the "large calibre semi automatic assault sniper rifles" the reality is we are all just normal people who like to source our own meat, spend time getting close to nature, and enjoy the outdoors, we value the animals and the access, and actively control ferals like foxes/dogs/feral cats etc. There is always the odd F%$^ wit in the crowd as with any activity, but they are thankfully rare.
If you are up my way, drop in and I will make you some Venison and Guiness casserole
