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The NSW Liberals have sensationally split from the Nationals and will not support a contentious hunting bill, warning that the party cannot support a “taxpayer-funded NRA-style lobby group”.
The Liberals voted at shadow cabinet on Monday night to oppose the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers bill, which included the establishment of a new hunting authority, but the Nationals will go their own way and support the legislation with some amendments.
NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman and NSW Nationals leader Dugald Saunders.Credit: Fairfax Media
Premier Chris Minns on Monday walked back his support for one of the most controversial aspects of the bill, which would have enshrined the “right to hunt” in NSW law.
Minns said he was concerned “it might evoke this idea that there’s a right to bear arms, like we’ve seen in the United States”. Labor is still finalising its position on other sections of the bill.
However, Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said on Tuesday that Minns’ stance did not go far enough and the Liberals would vote against the bill, which initially had the support of the Labor government when it was introduced to parliament in May.
“Chris Minns and Labor have now walked back their support for a right to hunt but otherwise they still support the Shooters’ hunting bill – establishing a taxpayer-funded NRA-style lobby group in a dodgy deal for support for unrelated government legislation,” Speakman said on X on Tuesday.
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Minns’ move to water down a key pillar of the Game and Feral Animal Legislation Amendment (Conservation Hunting) Bill 2025 came as political sentiment shifted against the legislation.
Initially supported by the Labor government, the bill faced fierce blowback from gun control groups, the Greens and the Animal Justice Party, which branded it a “Trojan horse” for the “gun lobby’s wishlist”.
The Alannah & Madeline Foundation, established by Walter Mikac after his two daughters and his wife were killed in the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, described it as the “most regressive firearm legislation” introduced into any Australian parliament in 30 years.
It was framed as a means of countering the state’s feral animal problem, but the legislation would have enshrined a right to hunt, legalised hunters’ access to gun silencers, and established a $7.9 million state hunting authority.
Funding was set aside in the June budget for the new hunting authority, even though the Shooters’ bill, introduced by the party’s leader Robert Borsak, had not passed parliament.
The hunting authority has been criticised as a revival of the Games Council, abolished in 2013 after a number of scandals and a scathing review.
Borsak has slammed the criticism as being misinformed and “anti-hunting lies and propaganda”. He has categorically rejected suggestions he cut a deal with the government, and also dismissed claims the legislation would increase the supply of guns in NSW.
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