Saturday, March 30, 2024

Farmers ramp up gun campaign

Neal Wallace
Farmers are ramping up their campaign to change new firearm laws to allow some of them to use otherwise  banned firearms for pest control on their properties.
Reading Time: 3 minutes

The legislation as proposed will compromise the ability of landowners with significant pest problems to do control so Government officials were invited to hear the concerns from some affected Central Otago farmers, Federated Farmers board member Miles Anderson says.

The federation wants an exemption for a small number of farmers who need semi-automatic firearms with large capacity magazines, of the type the bill will outlaw.

Proposed exemptions in the Bill extend only to people directly involved in pest control and employed by or working for the Department of Conservation, regional councils and professional pest controllers.

Farmers with a genuine pest problem should also be given dispensation to use these prohibited weapons.

“We are not talking a large number of farmers being exempt but for those where it is necessary, otherwise we will end up with the pests spreading everywhere,” he said.

They also want the proposed five-year firearm licence extended to 10 years.

The federation’s South Island high country committee chairman Rob Stokes said “We believe a few minor amendments to the Bill would allow a limited number of farmers, who can display a legitimate need, to continue to undertake their own pest control.”

Anderson says it appears Government officials have not realised the firearms are needed to control growing populations of rabbits, deer, Canada geese, pigs, wallabies and hares.

At high pest levels these are most effectively controlled with semi-automatic rifles and shotguns with large capacity magazines, he says.

Tararua landowner Mark Wheeler says goats are an increasing issue on his farm but as a keen hunter he has found semi-automatic weapons essential to effectively control pests like Canada geese and wallabies.

“There is a place for them and I’m not talking recreation and sport shooting but from a farming perspective. There is a need.”

The proposed legislation exempts only DOC employees involved in pest control, the holder of a DOC concession doing wild animal recovery or a person controlling wild animals and pests under Biosecurity Act.

That definition is limited to a department, a council, a territorial authority or a body corporate.

Nowhere are landowners mentioned as able to seek exemption for  pest control.

It does say “A person whose sole business or a substantial part of whose business is providing services to control any prescribed wild animals or animal pests or a person employed or engaged by that person for that purpose.”

Stokes says eligibility for exemption should be restricted to a person who is fit and proper and owns, manages or works on a farm that has pests at a level requiring prohibited firearms.

Those firearms must be of the correct calibre and configuration for the role.

Conservation Minister Eugenie says pest controllers can apply to the police for approval to use exempt firearms to control pests on both public conservation land and private land.

Meanwhile, the National Party’s police spokesman Brett Hudson says amendments it proposed to provide flexibility for pest control have largely been ignored by the Government.

“Some of our proposed changes that are outside the scope of the Bill include removing excessive regulatory powers from the Act, introducing new and consistent exemptions for sports shooting and providing for greater flexibility for pest control exemptions.”

One that has been picked up and will be considered by Cabinet is a proposed firearm prohibition order.

If made law it will give police greater power to search and take firearms from people it suspects of breaching a prohibition order against holding a firearm or committing an offence.

The police have also clarified that cartridges filled with steel or lead shot, often referred to as birdshot, are not prohibited by the proposals.

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