OF INEFFECTIVE REPRESENTATION, AND OLD CHESTNUTS TOO

Recently, a concerned bowhunter contacted his peak body expressing concern after the abolition of Game Council NSW, the suspension of hunting in 400+ NSW state forests and Crown lands, and bowhunting’s total exclusion from the proposed trial of hunting in 12 National Parks.

The response from his peak body – the Australian Bowhunters Association – serves to highlight growing concern about the state of all-pervading inertia and general apathy that threatens our culture and practices.

It also serves to demonstrate why so many people are discussing the pros & cons of launching of a new peak body that is not motivated by self-perpetuation and magazine sales, but rather the preservation of our rights and our way of life, through proactive lobbying, public education, activism and, above all, service and accountability to its stakeholders.

What are your thoughts...is this the response you would expect from the country’s largest peak/’representative’ body? Have you had a similar experience? Do we need an effective, proactive voice to represent our interests and is that voice anywhere to be found?

At this point I will share only one view of my own. When you sit at the centre of an organisation with millions of dollars in assets and resources; an organisation that is the largest of its type in Australia, and commands the greatest potential pool of member-resources just waiting to be tapped, it is gutless and disingenuous to deploy the old “remember none of us gets paid” chestnut!  Nowhere on the ABA's membership application form do the words, "we may not be able to represent your interests effectively because none of us gets paid" apear.

I have changed only the name of the member who made the original inquiry. The rest of the following exchange is as it transpired.

As always, your comments are welcome. You may also be interested in a related post on the Hunters Stand "As we look into the Abyss" here

Anyway, I'll get outaya way now.... 

Email from concerned bowhunter to Australian Bowhunters Association:

Subject: NSW Bowhunters left out in the cold

What do you plan to do to protect our rights now that they have been stripped away. If bowhunting is not allowed in National Forests then State Forests will be next. How did we go from a great prospering culture to being wiped off the map in one day. Time for you people at ABA to step up your game instead of sitting on your hands. Bows will be a licensed firearm within two years if you and the Shooters and Fishers party don't do something. You are our governing body! You represent US. It's time to prove that you are not just a figure head with no power as is bandied around all too often. Restore our culture and our faith.

'Michael'
-ends- 

Australian Bowhunters Association's response:

Hello 'Michael',

Thanks for your concerned approach.

I can assure you the ABA exec do as much as they can but none of us get paid for what we do.
Believe it or not most of us have to make a living but we are happy to give up our time in persuit of what *we think is the benefit of archery/bowhunting.

In the case you are refering we haven’t had “anything wiped off the map in one day”. NSW has never had any hunting in National forests so anything that is allocated is a plus. Would I like to see bowhunting in these places? Absolutely. Is it likely? Probably not. The government want to eradicate feral animals and the bow is not the tool for that. *At this stage I am hoping the current hunting process will continue in State forests, but time will tell.

(I can assure you that we will do our best to be a part of that process but I doubt that we will see a conclusion prior to the National Election as I am pretty sure the whole thing is about votes.)

Believe it or not the Game Council was never about hunting, it was about feral and pest animal control, the government was using private hunters to help in this regard. Let’s face it, the bow is not going to cut it in a numbers game and numbers are what the GC are about. If the Game Council worked 100% efficiently and effectively it had a use by date anyway, as some time in the future there would not have been any pest animals left to hunt. In this regard the government has now decided there is a more efficient way of handling the current arrangement hopefully it will continue on with a similar process of the GC but it will be handled by an established department (DPI ?) and the GC will be no more.

This has no effect on private property hunting which historically has been the only way hunting could be conducted in NSW.

So what’s to be done? Numbers is the Game. Politicians and governments only care about numbers. So I’ll give you a challenge 'Michael'. Get everyone you know to join an archery/bowhunting association. The more numbers we can quote to these people the more chance we will have of them listening to us. But working against us will achieve nothing but division, and that will get us nowhere.

Mark Burrows,
VP Bowhunting Division.
ABA.

AS WE LOOK INTO THE ABYSS

For some time bowhunting, and indeed archery as we know it, has been under threat from the anti-hunting, anti-weapons lobbies. They perceive archery as part of an unhealthy "weapons culture" on route to a growing "guns culture" and they want the purchase of bows & arrows, and hunting, to be  at least as tightly regulated as shooting and the purchase of guns and ammunition.

The Greens and Antis use graphic images of arrow-shot native wildlife to punctuate emotive claims of extreme cruelty, and their demands for an end to hunting in all its forms, whether on public or on private lands.

These claims are beginning to win-over the public, and this is due in no small part to the deafening silence of archery’s sundry peak organisations, which appear to have no strategy to counter misleading and uninformed claims and media reports.

Now that the culturally intolerant Antis have had what they no-doubt perceive to be a ‘win’ in the form of the abolition of Game Council NSW, and the suspension of all hunting on public lands, we can expect them to redouble their efforts to draw our culture and practices into disrepute.

An example of the success of the Anti's smear campaigns to date is manifest in the fact that bowhunting will not be included in the NSW Government’s proposed trial of hunting in 12 selected National Parks, scheduled to commence in October 2013.

I emphasise – bowhunters have been specifically excluded from the proposed trial of hunting in National Parks.

Field Archery and Bowhunting have lacked effective representation for far too long. We desperately need a strong and articulate voice, along with a public relations and education strategy. Above all we need a plan to ensure the equitable inclusion of our culture and activities in all discussions and in all trials affecting us, now and into the future.

Should we fail in this objective, bowhunting and field archery will continue to serve as the silent pawns of those who wish to cast hunting in a negative light, and as a convenient and graphic scapegoat for cynical, opportunistic governments that wish to curry favour with an impressionable public that has only negative imagery upon which to form its opinions.

As a first step in achieving our goal of robust representation, a meeting will convene in Sydney on August 21st to inaugurate the first Field Archers & Bowhunters (FAB) division of the Shooters and Fishers Party. 

The proposed FAB will act as a voice for archers and bowhunters within the Party, and as a ready reference group and source of expert advice for Shooters and Fishers Party representatives. Affiliation with the FAB will in no way diminish Shooters and Fishers Party members’ right or capacity to “have a say" in the full spectrum of outdoors/recreational activities the Party seeks to represent, preserve and expand, nor will it inhibit participation in any of the Party’s other activities.

It will, however, create robust lines of communication and consultation between key stakeholders and the Party machine.

If you are a current member of the Shooters and Fishers Party, or if you have been thinking about joining and would like to lend your support to the FAB, you are invited to attend the inaugural meeting in Sydney on August 21st.  The meeting is supported by Shooters and Fishers Party MPs Robert Brown and Robert Borsak who have confirmed their attendance.

To register your wish to attend and for further information, please contact me (Garry Mallard) at huntingcommunity@gmail.com as soon as possible.

It is important to stress that the meeting will be open only to Shooters and Fishers Party members and those wishing to join the Party. Committee/executive positions on the FAB will be filled by Party members on the night.  Party membership forms will be available at the meeting and you are strongly encouraged to join the Shooters and Fishers Party as soon as possible, regardless of whether you will attend the inaugural FAB meeting.

Make no mistake, we stand at the precipice and the ground beneath us is far from firm.  The future of our culture and practices may still be in our hands, but if we fail to act now; if we leave it to someone else to speak and lobby on our behalf while we sit idly by, we will have no-one to blame but ourselves when the bow & arrow buyback begins.

Anyway, I'll get outaya way now....

GOVERNANCE REVIEW OF GAME COUNCIL OF NSW - "DUNN REPORT" 2013

The final report on the Governance Review of Game Council NSW is out, and in the spirit of providing you with up-to-date information, I have provided a download link below.

I will post updates as the story unfolds, so watch this space!

• Final Report - Governance Review of Game Council of NSW - Dunn, for Independent Consulting .PDF

• Government Response to the Recommendations of the Governance Review of the Game Council of NSW .PDF