Nicole McKee
“New Zealand hunters have spent generations in the backcountry. Every weekend they’re out managing game animals, controlling predators, restoring huts, clearing tracks, and running trap lines. They do it because they love these places, not because they’re paid. No group has done more for the backcountry, yet Government still treats hunters like a problem instead of one of our greatest conservation assets,” says ACT Deputy Leader Nicole McKee, announcing the Party’s policy for hunters at the Hunting & Wildlife Expo this weekend.
“Wellington has treated hunters as a group to consult after conservation decisions have already been made. It’s time they had a genuine role in making those decisions.
“The Game Animal Council was created to represent hunters, but it has never been given the authority to do the job hunters were promised it would do. It’s time to trust the people who know game animals best.”
“DOC cannot manage New Zealand’s conservation estate alone,” says ACT Conservation spokesperson Cameron Luxton.
Cameron Luxton
“Hunters provide thousands of hours of work in the removal of predators, yet are not formally involved or in the management of backcountry huts, in which DOC has issued more than 2,300 closure alerts since 2021 and faces a maintenance backlog it will never clear on its own while community groups are delivering the same work at a fraction of the cost, then surviving hand-to-mouth on annual discretionary grants. That’s backwards.
“Hunters and volunteers understand this country’s fauna and landscapes because they’re out there every weekend. Better decisions are made when responsibility sits with the people who know the resource best, while DOC continues its wider conservation role.
“When you’re rebuilding huts or clearing tracks, nobody cares whether you’re a DOC ranger or a hunter. They just appreciate that someone turned up and got the job done.”
ACT will:
- Empower hunters in game animal management by transferring the responsibility for game animals on conservation from DOC to the Game Animal Council, with full funding for this role.
- Recognise game animal and game-bird species as valued natural resources to be sustainably managed in relevant legislation.
- Designate New Zealand’s most valued game herds, such as Stewart Island whitetail deer, as Herds of Special Interest.
- Reward hunters for verified conservation outcomes by opening up the Voluntary Nature Credits Market to accredited hunting groups.
- Back community groups maintaining backcountry huts through right of first funding for multi-year contracts.
- Improve hunting access to public land by making hunting access a priority for the Outdoor Access Commission, giving the Game Animal Council responsibility for managing fair access between recreational hunters and commercial venison recovery operators and removing DOC’s ability to dictate which helicopters commercial venison recovery operators use, leaving aviation regulation to the Civil Aviation Authority.
- Protect lawful hunting, creating infringement offences for interfering with hunts, including through the use of drones and helicopters.
The full policy, Backing Hunters, can be found here.
“Hunters were promised a seat at the table when the Game Animal Council was created. Instead, they got another advisory role while DOC kept making the decisions. They know these places because they’re out there every weekend, not because they’ve read another report,” says Mr Luxton.
“It’s time Government stopped getting in hunters’ way and started trusting them with the responsibility they’ve earned. Hunters have spent decades proving they’re among New Zealand’s best conservationists. They should have a real role in managing the game animals and public land they care about.”
Callum Sheridan, ACT candidate for Waitākere and former New Zealand Deerstalkers Association president, says:
“This is a great policy for hunters, who already contribute hundreds of thousands of unpaid hours to conservation efforts every year. The wider hunting community is a massively untapped, and often underappreciated, resource. Unlocking the potential of this sector is a win-win-win for keen hunters, conservation, and the taxpayer.”
What a breath of fresh air for a political party to be recognising public fishing andf hunting.
National promised and set up a Minister of Hunting and Fishing. Todd McClay was the first minister but he quickly jettisoned the port-folio to a junior MP James Meager.
Since then the whole idea has been a damp squib.
All it needs is ACT to recognise the public’s recreational fishing both freshwater and saltwater and recognise habitat is a key particularly with trout and salmon and the threats of over-allocation of irrigation and the insidious damage nitrates from over-intensive farming are doing to freshwater ecosystems.
On sea fishing, ACT needs to conduct an enquiry into the “boom and bust” fisheries occurring under NZ First’s Minister Shane Jones’ watch – e.g. orange roughy, kahawai, tarakihi, paua, crayfish etc. . Collapsed fisheries are common.
That means an enquiry into the Quota Management System that has failed miserably and tragically for the resource.
Well done ACT and in particular Nicole McKee and Cameron Luxton.
I have long argued, Hunters are New Zealand’s greatest eco-warriors. However, there are some major barriers to our success (see below).
Indicatively,:
* We’ve got in excess of 5 billion dollars Invested in our recreational assets (the way the government valued them during the firearms so-called buyback .. actually, only-partly-compensated confiscation .. this is likely to be exceeded by our firearms alone).
* We spend into the hundreds of millions of dollars per annum. Again, NZ’s 167,000-odd Hunters (MSC “A Hunter’s Tale) only need to spend $600 each, to make our total reach $100M. Many Hunters are inactive or relatively inactive .. but others spend into the tens of thousands per annum. Think vehicles, fuel, ammunition, other travel costs incl helicoptors, charter vessels, and air travel, accommodation, clothing, hunting equipment, gamebird licences and other fees etc. Consider also the combined sales of all the industry suppliers including clothing brands, and retail chains like Hunting & Fishing, Gun City etc).
* We spend millions of hours involved in our recreational activity. Again, 167,000-odd Hunters only need to spend an average of 6 hours each per year, to crack a million. Some put in hundreds of hours. A single, weekend hunting trip alone accounts for up to 48 hours. A week-long trip can exceed 150 hours.
* We account for into the millions of critters per annum. Again, that’s only 6 critters each. Some of us account for hundreds. This includes the so-called big- and medium-sized game species (deer, tahr, pigs, and chamois), but also includes small game, gamebirds, and so-called pest species. So that covers goats, wallabies, rabbits, hares, possums, ducks, geese, swans, feral cats, mustelids, rodents, etc)
The biggest threats to our success include:
* Access. We simply cannot manage the populations of pockets of animals we cannot access. Government agencies have systematically eroded our public access to huge swathes of public land – with locked gates, and failing to provide for it during processes like the South Island High Country’s Tenure Reviews. But also, effective wild, introduced species population management also requires managed access to the privately-owned land where many of these animals reside.
* The Right Tools for the Job. Again, the government and its agencies have conspired to take away our best tools, eg self-loading rifles (so-called semi-autos). This particularly affects numbers taken in species like goats, and wallabies .. and other species where high numbers demand culling .. often reducing tallies by as much as 20-50%, in some cases.
NB: the author is part of an extended family for which all of the above has been a lived reality, for many years. The investment .. the expenditure .. the time spent .. the critters taken care of .. as well as the access to pockets of wild, introduced species, and the right tools for the job.
Yes Nicole – all very good but what about those unhappy farmers who think that all deer are pests and must be destroyed. Then there’s the greenie Forest & Birders who have the same viewpoint. Two powerful lobbies who think the same way i.e. let the Government (i.e. taxpayer) pay for their zealotry, and have the whole show run by know-nothing bureaucrats. Then add 1080 to the mix and Hunters haven’t got a hope in hell of seeing any meaningful game management, ever.
Then there’s the complete lack of expertise in NZ for game management. There are very few ecologists/planners/lawyers etc with any real expertise in how this could be done. Just look at the old “Recreational Hunting Areas” which withered and died for lack of interest.
Nice policy Nicole. Shame about the fact it will never happen.