NZDA H&W 198 WEB

Speech by Hon Peter Dunne,
MP for Öhäriu, Leader of
UnitedFuture and Associate
Minister of Conservation
[Delayed by weather, Mr Dunne delivered this “opening” speech when the conference
was half over and it has been edited accordingly – Editor]
The theme for the conference this
year is “growing your business” – a
real focus on how this association
can grow its membership and
therefore grow its influence on the
decisions that are being made that
will affect you. I want to give you
my full endorsement and support
to that ambition. I think that it
is highly desirable, I think that it
is highly appropriate and I think
this organisation is currently very
well placed to make the change in
focus that you are advocating, Bill
[O’Leary], and I wish you every
success with it.
“Hunting in every
sense is big
business…”
But I actually want to take it a little
further and say that, in addition to
growing the business, I think you also
need to know your business, and that
will help you grow. I was looking at
some figures recently prepared by the
Mountain Safety Council as part of
its Hunter’s Tale work and they tell a
very interesting story. They may be
a bit conservative in some respects,
but I think nonetheless, they indicate
a very strong base for deer hunters
throughout this country. They
estimate there are more than 166,000
active hunters in New Zealand,
mainly male and, curiously, mainly
aged between about 35 and 64. They
estimate around 10 percent of New
Zealand males hunt at some stage,
and around 70 percent of those are
hunting at least once a month. So it
is a very regular and ongoing activity.
When you add in the estimate of
30,000 hunting visitors from overseas
each year (again mainly male but
curiously a little younger and most
NZ Hunting & Wildlife 198 - Spring 2017
of them Australian), we come to the
conclusion that hunting in every
sense is big business, and most of
those hunters would be deerstalkers.
So I think that sets the scene for
your significance in the overall sphere
of hunting in New Zealand, and your
significance in terms of the steps that
you take and the leadership that you
provide, that helps grow the business
of hunting and hunting-related
activity in this country.
When we established the Game
Animal Council in 2013 we gave the
overarching sector of recreational
hunting a clear voice in policy for
probably the first time. That has been
an extremely successful move, and I
am delighted to see the progress that
it has been able to make in its first
three years. But that progress has
also created a fresh opportunity for
the Deerstalkers’ Association, as the
advocate for, and the representative
of, deerstalkers up and down the
country and those heading out to
hunt every weekend. Prior to the
establishment of the Game Animal
Council I think NZDA was trying
to be both the representative of
deerstalkers and an advocate for
hunting interests. Now that can
become a much more concentrated
role on behalf of deerstalkers and the
role they play in that wider hunting
community.
I put it as simply as this: you
represent the concerns of the average
ordinary hunter in New Zealand,
and your function and your role,
quite appropriately, is to bring those
concerns to the attention to the
Game Animal Council and through
that, to the government as a whole.
And that is a pretty challenging role
and I think that if you look at what
has been happening over the last
couple of years, there have been many
opportunities where your influence
has had the capacity to be critical in
terms of the outcome.
www.stagersport.co.nz 03 44 888 44 info @ stagersport.co.nz www.blaser.de Blaser Jagdwaffen GmbH is proudly imported, distributed and supported by Stager Sport Australasia Ltd
9