"Hunting is incompatible with the conservation values underpinning National parks."

That assertion has been disproved by the experience of other states and countries. Killing feral animals is totally consistent with conservation values.

"No adult can seriously claim an inalienable right to seek sport, recreation and pleasure in the killing of animals"

Man was born a hunter. You can pretend you are a higher life form by eating mung beans and tofu, but you won't fool most people. To eat meat you first have to kill an animal. It makes no difference whether it is shot with a bullet or a captive bolt.

There is no "sport" involved in hunting. However, it is a recreation equally as legitimate as gathering wild mung beans.

"It is not a mature and stable personality trait to require killing for one's identity formation."

A completely straw argument. Nobody says identity formation requires hunting. However, it is a legitimate recreation that many people find satisfying.

"Shooters' MLCs need to mature politically."

Maybe, but the fact that you disagree with them does not make you politically mature or them immature. The fact is, they are achieving what their constituents expect of them.

"The experience of duck shooting in Victoria suggests that hunters blaze away irresponsibly."

Utter nonsense perpetrated by discredited people like Laurie Levy.

"Endangered species are likely to be shot and many birds are left to die inhumanely."

The evidence completely contradicts that.

"It is unlikely that recreational hunters will eradicate feral animals from National Parks and so benefit the environment and wildlife."

It's true hunting won't eradicate ferals, but the environment can benefit without eradication. Reducing numbers makes a difference.

"Hunters have a vested interest in the survival of feral populations."

If that was true, they'd be all in favour of the Greens approach to feral animal control. It's utterly ineffective.

"There are also insoluble problems of misidentification of species and accidental shooting of protected fauna."

No evidence to support that whatsoever.

Completely agree with DavidL! Hunting as a sport is a fairly recent phenomena, in the overall course of human history? Before it became sport, it was a survival mechanism.
How many Great Depression tables would've been virtually barren but for the bunny?
The sport in hunting lies almost entirely with the stalk. The end, arguably the most humane method currently in vogue?
A single professionally placed bullet to the brain pan, which not only immediately ends the animals life, but effectively prevents any of the trauma associated with the trucking or railing of tightly packed squealing domestic species, that may then be forced to wait for hours or days, in trembling trepidation in some slaughter yard!
And don,t tell me that they aren't aware that there is some unholy and terrible fate waiting there for them, perhaps after they have been trucked, in dry mouthed terror, halfway around the country.
Selected target shooting remains the very best way to reduce feral species! Poisons and traps don't discriminate at all, and take much more than the target feral species.
When I was a bitty wee bit of a bairn, I feared guns, hunting and hunters!
When I grew up and saw the real necessity to cull feral species, as humanely as possible, I joined them!
If one doesn't eat meat then one must eat buckets of broccoli or take iron and B12 supplements.
The latter an absolute must for proper brain function! [As vegans like tree hugger, Herr Hitler demonstrated!]
The NSW Labour party was kicked out because it tried to privatise power?
In my view, the upper house is arguably the only house respecting and representing the will of the people.
Moreover, and it is a valid question.
Show me just one verifiable example where privatisation has lead to lower energy prices?
Rhrosty.

A couple of points:

I am in favor of sporting shooters culling feral animals in National Parks. But as one experienced in the sport, I believe strict controls should be established over the way these animals are shot. It is not reasonable to progressively blast the animal into smithereens in the attempt at a kill.

It should be mandatory (with consequences), to establish a kill was clean. I think personally, the only shot permissible should be a shot into the head from behind the ear. Any other shot is not reasonable in my view.

This rule would turn the culling venture into a true sport involving skill involved in stalking the animal in the first instance, with minimal impact on the animals, and ensure a humane killing.

After-all, professional hunting involves the fundamental of stalking and clean kill!

I see no reason why one should be allowed to hunt in public areas.

Get your own property, then shoot and kill there anyone and anything you like. While the practice is disgusting, you should be able to do whatever you like there, on your own property, for whatever reason, but not in public reserves: the animals you kill there are simply not yours!

Any shooting in National Parks would have to be strictly controlled, as is currently the case for hunting in State Forests - with prior approval for an allotted time within an allotted portion, and only to accredited hunters who are responsible and experienced, and who will have to ensure they stay within their allotted area using GPS. Targets will only include specified feral and/or legitimate game species, and penalties for any transgression are very severe. Hunters and shooters take their responsibilities very seriously, as even a relatively minor error can easily result in loss of licence and firearms, and they therefore have to be extremely cognizant of the potentials of their equipment and of the limitations of their hunting and shooting skill and of their physical endurance.

Nevertheless, I would be very surprised if many permits to shoot in National Parks will ever be issued, and would expect that any permits would only be for the back blocks, far away from the public, rangers and even the most ardent of bush-walkers. Inevitably, for any permits to be issued, security will have to be paramount - to ensure neither hunters nor public or park rangers/officials could venture outside of their allotted areas during any period when a permit is in operation.

National Parks have been a haven for various feral species causing damage to both ecosystem/habitat and adjoining farms or stock. Poisoning has not proven particularly effective, and provides a shocking and far from humane death in most instances, as well as running the risk of causing harm or death to non-target, and possibly protected or endangered species. In the right hands a firearm is both safe and a very effective delivery system for the humane despatch of an intended identified quarry.

Anyone who has witnessed the effects of myxomatosis or of 1080 poison would not wish such a death on even their worst enemy.

It is time anti-gun activists grew up.

The feral hatred they show shooters is really moral posturing, pretending they are good people because they hold contempt for certain others. Their arguments are emotional and hyperbolic, because to a moral poseur facts do not matter.

The National Coalition for Gun Control helped ACA show how to buy guns illegally in Tasmania. As a result, one man travelled to Tasmania, followed the instructions on the show, and killed himself. The coroner Ian Matterson found that he had acted on the script provided by the show. (Lovibond J. 1996. ‘Hobart gun death related to TV show’, Hobart Mercury, 21/05/1996, Ed: 1, Pg: 2, 511 words. Newstext )

Almost 6 months after that show, an evil man committed the Port Arthur Massacre. When asked how long ago he bought the gun he used his answer was "About five months."

After the Buyback, one person kept yammering about semi-auto handguns and how to get them legally; Lee Rhiannon, with her media partners at the ABC. One man, a stranger to Australia followed her advice. A few months later, with the media frenzy over the Washington sniper at its height, he shot seven people at Monash University.

Anti-gunners' words have been found in the Coroner's Court to have killed someone; but my guns never have, nor those of a million other Australians. Take your pretended moral superiority, you smug poseurs; we are innocent so leave us alone.