Interested in watching a program on how to shoot a moose and other exotic animals? Maybe you would be if you realised that, as a NSW taxpayer, you helped finance it.
Beyond The Divide, on free-to-air digital channels, carries sponsor advertisements for Beretta weapons, ammunition manufacturer Hornady (Accurate. Deadly. Dependable) and Game Council NSW.
The series promises to reveal the ''true adventure behind the hunt'', with the first series focusing on hunting wapiti deer in New Zealand.
Last week, the Game Council was allocated $4.35 million in the NSW budget, an increase of 63 per cent on the current financial year.
Greens NSW MP David Shoebridge condemned the council's sponsorship of the program, and said the government was ''increasingly addicted'' to doing deals with the gun lobby. Game Council NSW receives about two-thirds of its revenue from the government.
''In a tight NSW budget with limited funds for hospitals, schools and public transport, the NSW government managed to spend millions on an organisation that promotes guns and hunting,'' he said.
Game Council NSW's promotion of the show was ''further proof that the organisation is more about pushing a guns and hunting culture than it is about feral animal control''.
A spokeswoman for the Game Council said the ad was a one-off agreement to the value of $18,000. ''The episode featuring Game Council clearly falls within the objects of the Game and Feral Animal Control Act 2002, by showing a demonstration of the Game Council R-licence system and an interview with the chairman on the formation of the Game Council and its role in the promotion of safe, responsible and legal hunting on public land in NSW,'' she said. ''In addition, the footage of the chairman removing goats from public land in NSW clearly demonstrates the pest-control benefits of the system.''
A spokeswoman for Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson said the $1.69 million increase in the Game Council's funding was designed to expand the council's capacity to administer hunting in national parks.
''This increase is for the planned Supplementary Pest Control program in national parks,'' the spokeswoman said. The program is on hold pending the government's consideration of the independent review by Steve Dunn into the council's governance.
 |
| Public funding: TV show Beyond The Divide's website. |
Beyond The Divide, on free-to-air digital channels, carries sponsor advertisements for Beretta weapons, ammunition manufacturer Hornady (Accurate. Deadly. Dependable) and Game Council NSW.
The series promises to reveal the ''true adventure behind the hunt'', with the first series focusing on hunting wapiti deer in New Zealand.
Last week, the Game Council was allocated $4.35 million in the NSW budget, an increase of 63 per cent on the current financial year.
''In a tight NSW budget with limited funds for hospitals, schools and public transport, the NSW government managed to spend millions on an organisation that promotes guns and hunting,'' he said.
Game Council NSW's promotion of the show was ''further proof that the organisation is more about pushing a guns and hunting culture than it is about feral animal control''.
A spokeswoman for the Game Council said the ad was a one-off agreement to the value of $18,000. ''The episode featuring Game Council clearly falls within the objects of the Game and Feral Animal Control Act 2002, by showing a demonstration of the Game Council R-licence system and an interview with the chairman on the formation of the Game Council and its role in the promotion of safe, responsible and legal hunting on public land in NSW,'' she said. ''In addition, the footage of the chairman removing goats from public land in NSW clearly demonstrates the pest-control benefits of the system.''
A spokeswoman for Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson said the $1.69 million increase in the Game Council's funding was designed to expand the council's capacity to administer hunting in national parks.
''This increase is for the planned Supplementary Pest Control program in national parks,'' the spokeswoman said. The program is on hold pending the government's consideration of the independent review by Steve Dunn into the council's governance.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/greens-blast-game-council-for-backing-tv-show-20130622-2opa6.html#ixzz2X0hkdLLi
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to tell us what you think. We love to talk hunting...