Excerpts from 14 June 2013 the Governance Review of the Game Council of NSW also known as the Dunn Review:
There is a serious question about how the current situation has been allowed to develop. The Game Council has its roots deeply embedded in politics. It was established because of, and has grown with, the influence and power of the Shooters and Fishers Party in the NSW Legislative Council.
In the opinion of the review this power has resulted in the development of an inappropriate service delivery model. What should always have been a service delivery function undertaken by a government department, became a statutory body. What could have still been a tightly controlled body, has drifted, its autonomy encouraging governance risk taking and a lack of accountability.
The Shooters and Fishers Party argued and fought for autonomy and independence through the establishment of a statutory body. But winning that debate was the easy part. The hard part has been making it work. Despite many of those involved having highly credible private sector, political, and hunting expertise, that expertise could not substitute for the skills and experience required to set up and administer a new government function through a new statutory body in a way that meets government and community requirements and expectations.
Despite lots of hard work and well meaning effort by councillors and staff, and the ad-hoc support of other government agencies, the Game Council has become further and further isolated from mainstream government administration.
It has been argued that a high degree of autonomy and independence is desirable because the Game Council needs to be entrepreneurial if it is to achieve its ambition to be largely independent of government funding. But the Game Council is dependent on government for the majority of its
With autonomy and independence should come ultimate accountability for actions and risk. But accountability clearly lies with government and that is highly unlikely to change…..
In less than a decade the Game Council has built its business to the point where it now licences over 20,000 hunters to either hunt on public land, or to hunt certain game animals on private land…..
The Game Council has its roots deeply embedded in politics. It is commonly known that for many years the support of the Shooters and Fishers Party has been important to the Government of the day to ensure the passage of legislation through the Legislative Council. Mr Brown said the Shooters and Fishers Party has a general philosophy of supporting the legislative agenda of the Government but expects to be able to promote its own policy agenda in return, and aims to get support for at least some elements of that agenda…..
5 July 2013
On Thursday 4 July 2013 the Minister for Primary Industries announced the dissolution of Game Council NSW as a result of recommendations made following the NSW Government’s governance review.
The NSW Government has suspended hunting in all NSW State forests, pending a new risk assessment. All issued Written Permissions are now invalid. Game Council and the Forestry Corporation of NSW will attempt to call all licence holders with bookings to confirm cancellation of their permits in the coming week.
Game Council is committed to working with the NSW Government as the report recommendations are implemented and will also be working closely with NSW game hunting licence holders to minimise the impact of interim arrangements.
Media Contact: Brett Fifield P: (02) 6391 3311, M: 0427 029 511 or brett.fifield@dpi.nsw.gov.au
www.gamecouncil.nsw.gov.au
The Sydney Morning Herald 4 July 2013:
In a simultaneous announcement, Environment Minister Robyn Parker revealed the introduction of amateur hunting to national parks will proceed in October, but on a trial basis in 12 parks.
Pending the results, hunting may be rolled out in up to 75 parks and reserves as previously announced by the government under a deal with the Shooters and Fishers Party.
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