To state we live surrounded by unspoiled and pristine forest could not be further from the truth.

CSIRO figures estimate there are no less than 25million wild pigs alone on the eastern seaboard from Cape York Peninsula to the Melbourne GPO. These, alongside millions of foxes, feral cats, wild dogs, wild goats and deer do not constitute anything like an untouched Australia or an “Unspoiled South Coast” – the absolute opposite in fact.

These exotic species not only ravage and destroy our native animals, but our forests and farmland as well spreading diseases such as mange and feline encephalitis, which has a devastating effect on so many of our small marsupials.

Conservation hunters play a crucial and decisive role in the environment and are in fact the front line of humane feral animal eradication and control, the alternative being the heinous and indiscriminate, non-species-specific poisoning of these introduced species.

It seems ironic that somebody like Ms Cruttenden can support the indiscriminate and inhumane poisoning of feral and native animals and yet in the same breath criticise those that spend their own time, money and resources fighting the feral threat as humanely as possibly by dispatching these unwanted exotic animals as quickly and cleanly as possible with a well-placed bullet.

Shame, Ms Cruttenden, how dare you besmirch the name of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia, an association that number in excess of 160,000 members and all of them just everyday law-abiding conservationists doing what they can for the environment.

The SSAA has been applauded by not only the government but true conservation groups for its ongoing and successful efforts with hands-on conservation.

It has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars into conservation and native animal welfare, as well as its volunteers spending thousands of hours with hands-on conservation efforts.

Recreational and volunteer hunting brings in over $1billion a year now to the GDP and is slowly on the increase, mainly because it is a safe and healthy recreation.

HuntFest is nothing more and nothing less than a celebration of age-old culture and tradition steeped in thousands of years of our history that is mostly and mainly directed at the humane dispatching of game and feral animals and the value adding and use of their carcasses.

Wild meat or bush meat is healthy, free range and organically grown protein that has been utilised by hunters for time immemorial and something that should be available to and supported by the public.

Get smart Ms Cruttenden, come and join us as an Australian conservation hunter and learn to become a true conservationist and help us and our fragile environment.

Andrew Constance may claim a lower purchase price for his recent train announcement, but he neglects to mention the cost at which this comes. 

Building the trains overseas will cost upward to 1200 direct jobs in the regions and do nothing to preserve or grow our state’s manufacturing industry. One bidder offered to build a plant in Australia to assemble the trains providing at the very least 600 additional local jobs and yet they were rejected in favour of the overseas tender.

Labor’s steel plan will ensure tenders are assessed for the whole life cycle of the product including maintenance and repairs, not just the initial purchase price. 

Our state should be embracing the next generation of manufacturing jobs, not hastening its decline.