The Game Council of NSW has admitted it allowed hunting to take place illegally in state forests after failing to notice that the period during which hunting was permitted had expired.
The council, which regulates recreational hunting, is also being criticised for telling hunters that state forests would be reopened for hunting within weeks.
This is despite it being a decision that must be made by the Minister for Primary Industries, Katrina Hodgkinson, after public consultation.
According to research by Samantha Lee, of the National Coalition for Gun Control, the five-year period in which hunting has been allowed in 31 state forests expired in March.
But the Game Council only notified hunters last Thursday and now admits to having issued an unknown number of hunting permits since the expiry date. It means that hunters have been using firearms illegally in state forests for the past six weeks.
A spokesman for the Game Council said it became aware last week that ''due to an administrative anomaly, declaration periods for a number of state forests where hunting is permitted, had expired'' and that hunting had now been halted.
"During the period in which the forest declaration for hunting had elapsed, a small number of licensed hunters had accessed these forests,'' the spokesman said. ''These hunters remained insured throughout this period and were under the usual compliance supervision of Game Council game managers.
''No incidents were reported during this period, and Game Council NSW does not believe there was any risk created for the public by this event."
However, Ms Lee said the council had broken the law.
''The Game Council, a statutory, publicly funded body, hasn't just made a blunder, it has acted illegally and exposed hunters to potential criminal charges by allowing them to carry loaded firearms on public land without authorisation,'' she said.
The Game Council spokesman declined to say how many hunting permits had been issued for the forests.
''The redeclaration process for these forests commenced yesterday in conjunction with the land manager, Forests NSW, and is expected to be complete by June 9, 2011,'' he said.
Under the Game and Feral Animal Control Act, the minister responsible is required to publish a proposal that a state forest be opened for recreational hunting for at least 30 days before a declaration is made.
But the council told hunters on its website the forests were closed ''temporarily'' and that it would ''take an estimated five weeks until the affected forests are reopened for bookings''.
Ms Lee said this showed that the council ''is not only operating above the law, it may also be making its own ministerial decisions''.
The NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge accused the Game Council of incompetence.
''The Game Council has no credibility when it cannot even perform the simple administrative tasks of telling hunters which forests are open to hunting and which are not,'' he said.
"Any hunter operating in any of these state forests since March has committed a crime.''
He called on Ms Hodgkinson to return the role of feral animal control to professional hunters.
''The Game Council is clearly incapable of exercising its statutory responsibilities,'' he said.
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