The Australian Workers Union has called for 10km exclusion zones in their latest bid against hunting in NSW national parks, citing safety concerns over stray bullets.
The AWU has been opposed to the impending introduction of national-park hunting, and now says a 10km zone around the homes of employees living in parks must be established.
“Unfortunately bullets don’t stop at 1.5km, and can easily travel three to five kilometres,” the union’s NSW secretary, Rus Collison, said.
“We can’t have a situation where families are dodging bullets in their backyard.”
Larger, high-powered cartridges like the .300 Win Mag or .270 Winchester can stretch out to a little over 4.5km, but only if fired at an angle of about 30° into the air.
However, such a shot would be taken against the guidelines established for safe hunting, which, for example, require a hunter to have a backstop behind any target animal.
Even allowing for accidental discharges, there is little justification for Collison’s demand that a 10km exclusion zone be established.
There has still been no confirmation about when licensed hunting may be permitted to hunt in national parks.
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