Greens seek unreasonable restriction of young hunters.

Hi Fellow Freedom Fighters….
You may have heard or seen some negative publicity, generated by David Shoebridge from The Greens,
and from a range of extremist Animal Rights organisations, concerning the review of the Regulations
for the Game and Feral Animal Control Act. This five-yearly Review is a statutory requirement for all Acts.
One of the “controversial” changes being proposed by the Game Council, is to remove the very restrictive
“definition” for “direct supervision” of persons under 18 years, who are not using a firearm.
This would include youths hunting in State Forests with, say, bows… or using pig dogs.
When the original Regulation was made, this “direct supervision” definition of course was designed to
harmonise this Act with The Firearms Act 1996, wherein minors (under a firearms Minors Permit) are indeed
required to be under the “direct supervision” of a licenced Firearm owner.
The Darksiders ( of course) are trying to suggest that this means….. “12 year-olds will be running around the bush totally unsupervised”.
Those of you that hunt with minors of course know that this is absolute rubbish.
“Direct supervision” will continue to apply with those persons, under 18 years old, who are hunting with a firearm
(on a Minors Permit). The Firearms Act requires that to be so.
Not being under “direct supervision”, does not mean “unsupervised”.
Bowhunters have asked the Game Council to put up this recommendation, because it is almost impossible to stalk
into effective bow range, whilst shoulder-to-jowl with a second person. Also, as common sense would dictate,
most of the hunters that this will affect, are older than the minimum 12 years…. most are in their late teens.
Public comments on the Regulatory Impact Statement close on June 8th.
The Greens have instigated an International campaign, using some of the most notorious Animal Rights organisations, designed to frighten the Government off this proposal.
I ask you all therefore, to (once again) hit the keyboards and make a positive comment about this and any other
proposals put by the Game Council, in this review. It really will come down to numbers. We can count on the Darksiders to send in hundreds of “form letters”…. most of which will hopefully be discounted by the Minister.
To access the information, simply click on this link, and follow through with a brief submission. In reality, it only has to say that you support the proposed Regulations.
Regards,
Robert