Staff reporters
Tweed MP and parliamentary secretary for police Geoff Provest has given in principle approval for the use of flak jackets by National Parks employees working in areas where hunting is taking place.
The revelation is the latest in a bizarre series of twists and turns since the state government approved shooting in a number of the state’s pristine national parks last year in return for the parliamentary support of the Shooters and Fishers Party.
The plan has provoked an outraged response by NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge. He told Fairfax Media this morning the government was proposing to have ‘a kind of bizarre arms race going on in our forests by first arming the amateur hunters and then having to defend the forest workers with flak jackets’.
The amateur hunting program was to have commenced on March 1 but was put on hold while the Game Council, the body that was to oversee the issue of licences, is investigated over alleged illegal hunting activity.
The Game Council’s acting chief executive Greg McFarland has been suspended over allegations of illegal hunting, trespassing and inhumane killing of a feral animal.
Now Mr Shoebridge told Fairfax today Mr Provest has confirmed to him that ‘the commissioner is at liberty to issue a permit [to wear a bulletproof vest] to any NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service employee who may wish to apply and who can support their application with evidence of a genuine reason’.
The park workers’ union is calling on the government to purchase the bright orange vests for all workers ‘potentially endangered’ by the hunting program.
A NSW police spokesperson said any such queries would be considered on their merits, adding, ‘in the case of body armour, an applicant would be required to provide a risk assessment conducted by a suitably qualified person showing that an identified risk, warranting the use of personal body armour, existed.’
Read the full story at smh.com.au: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/park-staff-want-body-armour-for-hunters-bullets-20130403-2h788.html#ixzz2PQw4LtWs.
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