NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell says his government has no plans to overturn a long-held ban on recreational duck hunting in the state, after the coalition backed licensing changes introduced by the Shooters Party.
A Shooters Party bill to expand the state's duck hunting program passed through parliament on Thursday, making the Game Council the sole authority for granting licenses.
The changes strip the National Parks and Wildlife Service of its role in the licensing process, a move the opposition said gives the Game Council too much power.
Under current laws, hunting is only allowed on farms for pest mitigation.
Despite the government backing the bill - in return for the Shooters' support of ports privatisation - Mr O'Farrell said the government would not overturn a 1995 ban on recreational duck hunting.
"The 1995 ban on duck hunting is one of the great pieces of Carr (government) spin," Mr O'Farrell told reporters.
"In Labor's last year in office, 2010-2011, (it) set a quota of more than 100,000 ducks on private land - something like 52,000, 53,000 of those ducks were shot.
"Duck hunting on private land has existed since Bob Carr claimed that duck hunting had ended in NSW."
Mr O'Farrell took credit for restricting the Shooters Party bill with a series of government amendments, including the creation of a new Game Bird Management Committee to set quotas and determine what species of bird can be hunted and where.
Questioned about the deal with the Shooters Party over the government's leasing plans for Port Botany and Port Kembla, Mr O'Farrell said: "We're working with the upper house we have."
During the debate on the bill, the opposition's environment spokesman Luke Foley said Labor supported the current system of hunting by farmers for pest mitigation, but the shooters' bill was "a bridge too far".
"If recreational shooters play a part in a legitimate mitigation effort, we don't see a problem with that," Mr Foley told the upper house.
"We don't believe the regulatory arrangements contemplated by (the Shooters Party) are balanced."
Shooters Party MP Robert Brown said the bill simply removed the red tape involved with the licensing system.
"The current system is inefficient with two licensing systems running in parallel," he told parliament.
Greens MP John Kaye blasted the government for backing the duck hunting bill in return for the Shooters Party vote on its ports privatisation bill, which passed through parliament late on Wednesday night.
"(The government) is absolutely happy to trade off animal welfare in order to get its legislation through this chamber," he said.
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