Office of Environment and Heritage Draft Risk Assessment - 10 December 2012 Supplementary Pest Control in Parks Program SUMMARY

OF KEY FINDINGS Pages 13-14: This risk assessment has identified the following risks associated with the Supplementary Pest Control In Parks Program. 1. The risk of a projectile/s causing death or a serious injury to people (bullets & arrows) 2. Confrontation 3. Risk to Hunters 4. The risk of damage to property owned by people in point 1 5. Environmental Impacts 6. Cultural Heritage 7. Impacts on Visitation 8. Credibility (impacts on the NPWS brand) 9. Interruption to Park operations (NPWS & utilities etc) 10. Animal welfare

Pages 15-16: Risk assessment in relation to risk 1 projectile injury (The risk of projectile/s causing death or a serious injury to people). It ranked the consequence of this risk as major and the likelihood as possible for some user groups (OEH workers, Visitors and R-licensed hunters), giving a risk rating of High. Risk assessment in relation to Risk 2 - confrontation (The risk of confrontation associated with the Supplementary Pest Control In Parks Program) It rated likelihood as possible for hunter related confrontations and likely for publicauthorised officer conflicts (based on level of public protest), giving a risk rating of high to medium for confrontation incidents. Page 18: Risk assessment in relation to Risk 7 visitation impact (The risk of the Supplementary Pest Control In Parks Program having adverse impacts on visitation) It ranked the consequences of all these risks components as moderate to high and likelihood of possible to probable, giving a risk rating of medium for visitor experience and high for visitor perceptions and commercial impacts.

Page 19: Risk assessment in relation to Risk 10 animal welfare impact (The risk of the Supplementary Pest Control In Parks Program causing increased adverse animal welfare outcomes) This risk was divided into 2 classes (wounding of animals due to low hunter accuracy and the welfare risk associated with bows. These sub-risks were evaluated for the Supplementary Pest Control In Parks Program using the OEH Risk Matrix. It ranked the probability of both risks as possible Page 23: Post Incident Controls the purpose of post incident controls is to reduce the consequences when serious incidents arise. However for very serious injuries and fatalities the capacity of first aid to alter outcomes post event will be limited. Page 26: The following controls were considered but have not been incorporated as standard controls. They may be used in some specific circumstances in Zone B and Zone A areas where warranted by the level of risk. Use of exclusion areas along roads and walking trails and setting of minimum distances between hunters and other users based on projectile danger zones The requirement for hunters to have a competency equal or equivalent to that specified in the OEH firearms manual for other firearms users on park The requirement for hunters to operate under the direct supervision of OEH staff while undertaking general hunting operations