Hon Peter Dunne
MP for Ohariu / Leader of UnitedFuture
Minister of Revenue
Associate Minister of Health / Associate Minister of Conservation
Visit our website at www.unitedfuture.org.nz

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Deerstalkers delighted with Dunne's new deal

6 December 2011

The New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association Inc is delighted to see the Honourable Peter Dunne’s appointment as Associate Minister of Conservation, in a new National-led Government.

Mr Dunne has been a true friend to the hunters and fishers of this country for many years. Many of his party’s views and ideas, have been translated into welcome policy and bills in their interests.

NZDA is especially pleased to learn Mr Dunne wants to see a ban on guided helicopter-assisted hunting, on public conservation land. This repugnant activity, known also as heli-hunting, is unethical, unfair, unwanted and unprincipled to NZDA’s members.

Mr Dunne has in NZDA’s view a golden opportunity to introduce far-reaching legislative amendments to the Conservation and Wild Animal Control Acts, which the association hopes will restrict and ultimately stamp out this disgraceful blight on our remote landscapes.

NZDA also strongly endorses Mr Dunne’s commitment to ensuring free public access to New Zealand’s lakes, rivers, coastlines and forests. NZDA feels this access has been compromised over some of the country during previous governments and wants to see more legally enforceable measures taken to ensure enduring public access into the future.

NZDA keenly anticipates working with UnitedFuture where it can, to support its policies and proposals for legislation.

NZDA looks forward to the introduction of new legislation to ban heli-hunting and will lobby strongly for it, wherever it can.

NZDA also acknowledges Mr Dunne’s commitment to the progress of The Game Animal Council Establishment Bill, and looks forward to proposing meaningful practical amendments to this, during its second reading.

NZDA will be 'united' in the near 'future', with Mr Dunne, to produce some better deals for hunters.

Download the original press release here

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NZDA Heli-hunting Sub Committee Notice to Branches and members

7 November 2011

The heli-hunting sub committee is asking members and branches to write to members of parliament (MPs) on the issue of heli-hunting. This is part of our strategy to influence a change of legislation that would outlaw heli-hunting for good.

All the advice we have received, including the legal opinion, has been that forcing a change of political stance on heli-hunting is likely the only way we will put a stop to it.

The Department of Conservation should be accountable to the New Zealand public; quite clearly however on this issue they are hiding behind the Wild Animal Control Act.

The Department of Conservation then needs to be held accountable to the Minister of Conservation, Kate Wilkinson and the Prime Minister John Key; Kate Wilkinson has had ample opportunity to put a stop to heli-hunting but has failed to do so.

What we seek to do then is to make this issue such an embarrassment to the government that the resolve to stop it will come from higher up the ranks, and in so doing ultimately there will be accountability. This is where we need your help.

We would like individual members and branches to write a letter to all electorate and list MPs condemning heli-hunting.

We would like you to:

• A. Start your letter by introducing yourself or branch; state your hunting interests and experience.
• B. State that you are opposed to the practice of heli-hunting on all public land.
• C.Choose from the list of reasons below for opposing heli-hunting; you may choose only a few if you wish 3 or 4 will do.

Choose them at random remembering that we want them to be individual; if all letters are the same they will be treated as only one letter:

• 1. Heli-hunting is not a suitable activity in national parks, wilderness areas or remote back country areas because it does not fit the definition for these areas as set out in the Conservation Management Strategy (CMS) for the West Coast.
• 2. The increase in helicopter activity, irregular landings and low level flying negates the values associated with wilderness areas as stated in the CMS.
• 3. Heli-hunting is not an effective means of wild animal control; it will lead to helicopter shyness in animals which will compromise the effectiveness of future control operations.
• 4. Heli-hunting harms the international reputation of New Zealand, it is seen as an unethical practice and is not condoned any where else in the world.
• 5. It is causing resentment among tramping, climbing and fishing recreationalists, who seek a wilderness experience free from noise and disturbance.
• 6. Recreational hunters resent having to follow a set of rules which don’t apply to heli-hunters; they see this as heli-hunters having privilege over them. There should be one set of rules for all.
• 7. The herding and hazing aspect of heli-hunting is strongly condemned by hunters and animal welfare people. If the public in general became more aware of this issue it would have a negative impact on hunting and animal control operations.
• 8. All the organisations representing outdoor interests have expressed their concerns over the practice of heli-hunting, and there is outrage at the exclusion of the public from land management issues that allow heli-hunting.
• 9. The West Coast Conservation Board, the Otago Conservation Board and the Canterbury Conservation Board are all opposed to heli-hunting.
• 10. DOC charging a trophy fee for chamois and tahr is seen as selling hunting rights to the highest bidder; none of this money has come back to animal control, and in fact, DOC is unable to say where it has gone.
• 11. DOC has no mandate to sell hunting rights or animals on public land. The animals belong to the public and the public have a right to have a say in the management of these animals and lands. The public have spoken loudly on this issue and they are saying no to heli-hunting.
• 12. Hunters see themselves as major contributors to the conservation estate; they are involved in many projects up and down the country which enable DOC to be more effective in their work and at less cost. Hunters contribute to the blue duck programme pest control operations and wilding pine control to name a few; this goodwill is seriously in jeopardy due to heli-hunting.
• 13. There is no provision for policing the heli-hunting permit conditions, and in fact DOC has turned a blind eye to the many complaints so far laid against heli-hunters.
• 14. Heli-hunting takes place in mountainous terrain where safety is paramount; the practice of taking foreign hunters into this terrain is placing them at great risk. There has already been loss of life from this practice.
• 15. Heli-hunting is unsafe, unethical, unsporting, unsustainable, unprincipled and unwanted.
• If you have your own reasons by all means add those.

Send your letter to every electorate MP and list MP in your area. Do not send your letter to all 122 current MPs in parliament. You can find a full list of current MPs with links to their biographies and contact details, on parliament’s website www.parliament.govt.nz where they are listed in alphabetical order.

Send letters to MPs at parliament not to their electorate offices. Some list MPs have a low presence in the region they come from but all have offices in parliament.

The address formula to use is:
MP’s Name
Parliament Office
Private Bag 18888
Parliament Buildings
Wellington 6160

Don’t send by email, as email correspondence is usually cleared by MPs’ staff as a routine activity, written letters are more likely to be given to members to inspect.Address your letter personally – this has more chance of being placed in front of the MP.Please make a copy of your letter available to national office by post or electronically.I would love to be able to report to conference next year that we had a response to this numbering in the thousands.

Remember, this will only be effective if the number of letters they receive makes them sit up and take notice.

Snow Hewetson, National Executive, hewetson.family@xtra.co.nz Phone: 03 572 2772 Cell: 0274 122 772

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Deerstalkers Disgusted With Devious DOC Heli-hunting Report

7 November 2011

The New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association is disgusted by DOC’s open endorsement of law-breaking heli-hunters in its final report for this season.

DOC has produced a whitewash to appease itself and its new law-breaking friends, to ease the way for yet another short-term concession for 2012.

The report shows:

• That a mere $199,000 was raised through activity fees for heli-hunting concessions. This sum has sunk without a trace, though DOC promised it would actually be used to contribute to its own tahr control operations in 2011;
• That only 33% of chamois and tahr trophies were taken from national parks and wilderness areas and that operators actually cited whether in their extended season as a major reason for not using wilderness areas more.;
• That the department has failed miserably to achieve a cull of five young or nannies per trophy for all trophies shot in national parks or wilderness areas;
• That only through significant supervision by DOC staff, in DOC time, could it achieve the 1 to 4 ratio it boasts about in its report;
• That some heli-hunters broke conditions of their permits by fulfilling their cull requirement of nannies and juveniles, for trophies taken outside national parks or wilderness areas, even though their permit expressly forbids it;
• That far from completing their promised quotas, concessionaires have still 150 juveniles and nannies to slaughter, for trophies their clients took, now the helihunting season has closed;
• That two operators failed to produce hunter logs, though their permits clearly state they must;
• That another operator, the subject of a serious complaint, failed to have DOC’s preferred settings on his GPS, making tracking of his movements virtually impossible;
• That four ground-hunting parties withdrew from hard-won ballot blocks in the Landsborough and Adams wilderness areas because they were aware they would likely be competing with helihunters;
• That five written complaints and an undisclosed number of phone complaints, were received by DOC during this season, none of them in NZDA’s view being investigated or settled properly;
• That DOC admits it had no compliance systems in place to deal with heli-hunters shooting tahr outside designated hunting blocks, or in places tahr had not been known previously;
• That DOC fails to account for a total of 43 trophies shot outside of designated blocks and that its own changes to mapping made during the season cannot explain them away.

NZDA is appalled that DOC excuses blatant law-breaking and non-compliance with concession conditions and passes it off as ‘confusion’ amongst concessionaires. We believe heli-hunters are developing a deviant smoke-screen of technical non-compliance, which only seems to come to light well after they have breached their permits.

NZDA is also amused to see the net gain beyond the revenue gathered from activity fees, amounts to a paltry $27,000 in free culling by concessionaires. We wonder if heli-hunting, with all the public distaste and revulsion it brings with it, is really worth the trouble?

We will be doing all we can to make a public spectacle of these law-breakers and the officials who back them. We will also endeavour to show the non-hunting public what a repugnant activity heli-hunting is and why it deserves to be outlawed.

We will publicly oppose more short-term permits for 2012, and will work hard to oppose long-term permits as well, especially over national parks and wilderness areas.

Please direct all further enquiries to:
Alec McIver
National President
Ph: 07 349 4250 (work)
07 346 8138 (home)

Or
Snow Hewetson
South Island National Executive Member
Ph: 03 572 2772 (evenings only)

Or
Matthew Lark
Advisor to the National Executive
Ph: 07 377 1302.

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New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association responds to the – Introduction of the Game Animal Council Bill

Press Release - 18 October 2011

New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association National President Alec McIver sees the introduction today of the Game Animal Bill “as a small step but in the right direction”.

The introduction in Parliament today of a bill to establish a council representing sectors with interests in the management of New Zealand’s big game animals is the result of a decade of hard work by hunting interests.

"Recreational hunters had long advocated for a say in how valued game animals were managed and this bill would give hunters a statutory forum, where in collaboration with other interest groups, good advice would be put together for the Minister of Conservation."

The Bill does not provide everything included in the report provided by the ministerial appointed committee that spent nearly two years researching and consulting, and many hunters would be disappointed by the limited hunter representation on the proposed council of eleven.

Also of concern says Mr McIver is the apparent limitation on funding streams that may limit the management functions of the council.

Mr McIver does commend the provision for the council to set standards for hunting activities and to educate and train hunters in safe practices.

"The bill will take some careful examination and the select committee process will be interesting but at last the bill is before parliament and that is progress."

NZDA recognises the significant contributions made by politicians from all parties and in particular Peter Dunne and UnitedFuture.

For further information please contact: Alec Mciver, National President, Phone: 07 349 4250 (wk) 027 282 0770

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Deerstalkers Deplore EPA Approval of MZP

15 August 2011

Read original press release here

The National Executive of The New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association is concerned to see yet another approval of yet another very toxic agent for use against possums.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval of importation for manufacture or release, of micro-encapsulated zinc phosphide, (MZP), sees us taking a giant step backwards. This decision will see Pest-tech Ltd importing a substance, which in paste form, may be more hazardous to handlers, dogs, and non-target species than ground-based applications of 1080 are now.

NZDA accepts that the application has been approved by EPA, strictly for ground use. However, it notes the range of novel controls attached to its use, which the National Executive believes will make it unattractive to pest control agencies, unsuitable for large ground-based operations and unpalatable to many users of the outdoors.

MZP produces a highly volatile gas called phosphine (Ph3), and this can be highly toxic to people and animals. Phosphine appears to be produced in the encapsulated and paste form on the slightest contact with acids, water or water vapour, and controls the EPA has introduced clearly anticipate high risks which may be posed by this gas, if not by the paste product itself.

We note the decision report shows that:

• EPA staff were not supplied with adequate data in some studies, for the formulation of zinc phosphide which has been approved;
• EPA staff were unable to draw adequate conclusions about its efficacy with bird repellents, because the applicant provided no data about its use with bird repellents;
• EPA staff strongly recommended during their evaluation and review that use of MZP be allowed only where buffer zones were put in place around waterways. This makes the toxin, in NZDA’s view no better than 1080, and potentially worse, given its known toxicity to fish and other aquatic life;
• The decision committee has inserted alterations to default controls for identification, signage and packaging, specifically to accommodate the highly volatile nature of MZP, and to mitigate risks to users and handlers who may come into contact with phosphine gas. NZDA sees this is a bizarre situation allowing people to risk exposure of themselves and non-target species to a very dangerous substance, where lower impact substances may be just as effective;
• The decision includes controls allowing the Ministry of Health and the Department of Conservation to impose additional controls through permissions under S95A of the HSNO Act. NZDA sees this as a sign that this toxin is far from safe, and notes the same controls are mandatory for aerial or ground-based use of 1080;
• The decision includes additional controls on labelling and transportation, which clearly show this substance poses risks if gases it produces are inhaled, in all but the most stringent conditions. NZDA believes manufacture of this substance may pose higher risks to handlers and bystanders especially where the odour it emits, is no guide to safe exposure limits.
• NZDA believes this dangerous toxin will not help to promote greater use of ground-based pest-control operations. We believe alternative methods to poisons, rather than more and riskier poisons, are the answer to future pest control needs.

For further information please contact:

Alec Mciver,
National president
Ph: 07 349 4250 (wk)
Or
Matthew Lark
Advisor to the national executive
Ph: 07 377 1302

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New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association Commends Politicians

6 April 2011

Read original press release here

The New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association President, Mr Alec McIver, commended the politicians who had contributed to the decision announced by the Minister of Conservation to create a Game Animal Council.

The decision appears to accept many of the recommendations in the report submitted last year by the Game Animal Council Establishment Committee.

The proposal for a statutory body to manage deer, chamois, tahr and wild pig and in cooperation with the Department of Conservation has NZDA’s support. Of particular interest to NZDA is the recognition of game animals as a resource valued by many within New Zealand rather than as pests.

This announcement would be welcomed by NZDA which since 1937 had advocated for a management regime in which hunters had some say.

Mr McIver stated that after many years of frustration, there was now a way forward for a coordinated approach to the management of the valued game animals.

Within the framework of a statutory body recreational, commercial and conservation interests would be able to find solutions to long standing differences which were based on entrenched positions.

As a organisation representing hunters, NZDA was looking forward to the development of agreed national standards for hunting activities and collaboration with DOC, Police, Federated Farmers and land owners to address issues such as trespass and poaching.

Mr McIver commends the two successive governments and the four Ministers of Conservation who had overseen the process that preceded the announcement. NZDA acknowledges the key role of Mr Peter Dunne (UnitedFuture) whose contribution could not be over estimated. The establishment of a Game Animal council has been a condition of his ‘confidence and supply agreement’ with both Labour and the current National governments and his support has always been consistent and up front.

NZDA has confidence that both Hon Peter Dunne and Hon Kate Wilkinson will support the progression of the legislation necessary to set up the council. Both politicians can expect to receive the support of NZDA and its affiliated members throughout the process.

ENDS

Further information: Alec McIver, National President 07 349 4250, 027 282 0770, mciverengineering@vodafone.co.nz

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Deerstalkers Denounce Heli-Hunting Plunderers

15 March 2010

The New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association is disturbed by vexatious and misleading comments quoted recently in the Christchurch Press, by vocal proponents of heli-hunting on public conservation lands.

The Association’s National President, Alec McIver, together with prominent members of three South Island branches, has been actively opposing the Department of Conservation at every turn, since DOC decided to issue interim permits for heli-hunting on public conservation land, in December 2009.

“NZDA is totally opposed to heli-hunting anywhere in the world, but especially New Zealand,” McIver says. “Heli-hunting is quite different from wild animal recovery, and is an inhumane, unethical practice which is against the law under current concession processes. We want to keep it that way and intend to lobby every board and advisory agency working with and for DOC, to ensure it gains no legitimacy in the New Zealand outdoors. In response to comments made by Mr Blair Chapman reported in the Christchurch Press of 5 March, on page A8, Alec McIver observes:

“At the stakeholders’ meeting, arranged by DOC in Twizel, there were only two heli-hunting operators in attendance. No other stakeholders that were pro-heli-hunting bothered to turn up. There was however an overwhelming opposition to heli-hunting present and vocal, and we are pleased that the Twizel meeting was of such interest to hunters.”

The Association further notes that a vote by the Canterbury-Aoraki Conservation Board, on a decision to look unfavourably at any amendments to the Mt Cook National Park plan, was unanimous, and appeared to take little time for the board to reach.

NZDA fully supports the Canterbury-Aoraki Conservation Board decision to oppose heli-hunting. The decision was not “misguided and irresponsible”, as Mr Chapman alleges. Mr McIver believes, “It is a well-informed decision based not only on the evidence we provided in submissions, but also on prior research which board members themselves appear to have done to support it.”

NZDA’s National Executive will be writing and talking to other South Island conservation boards shortly, presenting them with a comprehensive view of the potential damage which heli-hunting may do to remote alpine environments. The Executive, which represents all pertinent issues to hunting and hunters, at a national level, is set on having so-called ‘spot and drop’ hunting banned completely. This is where a helicopter pilot or guide sees an animal and simply drops the hunting client close enough to shoot it; a practice which Alec McIver finds repugnant.

The Executive will be working hard to ensure that all wilderness areas are excluded from any heli-hunting permits. Executive members are also intent on seeing that DOC’s attempts to tie heli-hunting permits to wild animal recovery permits, past October 2010 are frustrated, or defeated.

While he does not support the activity, Alec McIver is pleased with the rigour and depth of the review process undertaken by Canterbury conservancy so far. The Association does however expect to increase its pressure on this review and on officials and responsible and interested ministers very soon.

Please direct all further enquiries to:

Alec McIver, President, Ph: 07 349 4250 (work) 07 347 4380 (home) Or: Matthew Lark, Advisor to the National Executive, Ph: 07 377 1302.

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DOC Set to Wipe Out Unique Arapawa Goats After Christmas

21st December 2007

New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association (NZDA) has joined the Rare Breeds Society of New Zealand in opposing DOC’s proposed destruction of the unique Arapawa Island goat breed, early in the New Year.

The Arapawa Island goats are a recognised unique breed, probably introduced by Captain Cook. Only a few are left on Arapawa Island.

“It is distressing that DOC had chosen the holiday period to carry out a Search and Destroy mission on Arapawa Island with the intention of wiping out this historic herd” NZDA spokesman Dr Hugh Barr said. “New Zealand’s historic introduced biodiversity is as important to us as our native biodiversity, under the Rio Convention on Biodiversity” Dr Barr said. “It is the basis of our agriculture, the industry on which most of our wealth as a nation depends. Very few native species have commercial value.”

“Yet we have the Department of Conservation, paranoid about exterminating anything introduced to the country, irrespective of the Rio Convention on World Biodiversity that New Zealand is a signatory to. It is disappointing too that the new Minister of Conservation, Steve Chadwick seems to have caught DOC’s xenophobic paranoia from her advisers after just over a month in the job.”

NZDA is calling for the Government to halt DOC’s extermination mission, and give due recognition to this rare historic breed, under the Rio Convention.

Further Info: Dr Hugh Barr, National Advocate, NZ Deerstalkers’ Assn 04 934 2244; 027 686 0063 hugh@infosmart.co.nz

Betty Rowe, Arapawa Island farmer, and Goats custodian 03 579 9032 walt.betty@xtra.co.nzwww.arapawagoat.comwww.rarebreeds.co.nz

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Deerstalkers' Welcome Recognition of Stewart Island Hunters' Huts

27th November 2007

The New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association (NZDA) has welcomed the Southland Department of Conservation's decision to grant a 30 year concession for the fifteen hunters huts on public land on Stewart Island.

"This is a great decision for the many deerstalkers who come from all over New Zealand to hunt Whitetailed deer on Stewart Island" NZDA President Alec McIver said. "Stewart Island has been a popular destination for deerstalkers for many years, back to the days when there were only tarpaulin camps."

The huts have been built largely by volunteer deerstalkers from Southland for the Rakiura Hunters Camps Charitable Trust. They replaced run-down tarpaulin camps that were often an eyesore. The construction of these huts has seen a significant reduction in site degradation and rubbish at camp sites. The trust also makes a significant contribution to rat control around huts.

"Some three thousand recreational hunters visit Stewart Island annually, and hunter numbers are increasing. Recreational hunters are the largest recreational group using the back-country areas of Stewart Island" Mr McIver said.

Further information: Alec McIver, President, Hm 07 347 4380; Mob: 027 282 0770; Wk 07 349 4250; mceng@xtra.co.nz

John DeLury, Chairman Rakiura Hunter Camp Trust; Mob: 027 692 5338

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Preservationists Scaremongering Over Big Game Management

6th November 2007

Forest and Bird is scaremongering with rumour and half-truths when it claims there will be “massive” damage to the environment if deer and wild pigs are managed as a valued resource instead of solely as pests to be eradicated, as at present, the New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association (NZDA) says.

Submissions on proposals to change deer, tahr, chamois and wild pigs from pests, to also manage them as valued recreational and wild food resources, as is done in most other parts of the world, close today.

“For the last 30 years there has been no management or management plans by DOC to reflect the value of these animals to the public. Damage to public lands has been minimal, in spite of attempts by Forest and Bird and DOC to demonise deer” NZDA President Alec McIver said.

Forest & Bird have accused “a sector of the hunting community”of wanting big game animals managed for hunters’ benefit, at the expense of conservation.“This is not NZDA policy. So to whom are they referring?” Mr McIver said. “Most hunters are conservationists, and have a great love and appreciation forthe outdoors.”

“Recreational hunters want more co-operative management of deer, chamois, tahr and pigs, for the benefit of the whole community, while protecting the diversity of our wild lands” Mr McIver said. “Because DOC has a one-sided view of these animals solely as pests, it is incapable of more co-operative management, only in poisoning, killing or otherwise exterminating these valued animals.”

“Forest and Bird should try to be more co-operative, rather than demonising these animals and hunters, and preaching extermination. They could instead work positively with other stakeholders to develop better solutions for all” Mr McIver said.

Further information: Alec McIver, President, Hm 07 347 4380; Mob: 027 282 0770; Wk 07 349 4250; mceng@xtra.co.nz