New Zealand Game Animal Council
1. Business / Trading Name: New Zealand Game Animal Council (NZGAC) – commonly referred to as the Game Animal Council (GAC).
2. Company number: N/A – The GAC is a statutory body established by Act of Parliament (not a registered company). (Its 2013 founding legislation conferred body corporate status, so it is not listed on the Companies Register; accordingly, its annual reports note “Registration Number: N/A”.)
3. NZBN: 9429041902691 – The New Zealand Business Number associated with the Game Animal Council.
4. Entity type: Statutory public body (Public Finance Act 1989, Schedule 4 organisation) – established under the Game Animal Council Act 2013. It operates as a small government agency representing hunting sector interests within a conservation context.
5. Business classification: Government – Conservation and Wildlife Management. (Listed industry category as “Conservation Programs” on LinkedIn.) The Council’s remit bridges environmental management and recreational/commercial hunting.
6. Industry Category: Hunting, Conservation, and Wildlife Management. The GAC represents the hunting sector (big-game animal management, including recreational hunting, commercial guiding/tourism, and game estate interests) while also engaging in conservation policy.
7. Year founded: 2013 – The Council was created by legislation in 2013 (with the first Council members appointed in 2014).
8. Addresses: Postal: PO Box 222, Te Puke 3153, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. (No separate public street address; administrative base is in Te Puke.)
9. Website URL: Official site:
https://nzgameanimalcouncil.org.nz
.
10. LinkedIn URL: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nz-game-animal-council.
11. Company Hub NZ URL: N/A. (Not applicable – as a statutory entity, it does not have a Companies Office profile on Company Hub or similar sites.)
12. NZ Companies Office URL: https://www.nzbn.govt.nz/mynzbn/nzbndetails/9429041902691/?sw=9429041902691 (NZBN register)
13. Social Media URLs: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nzgameanimal/ ; Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nzgac. (The Council uses these platforms to engage with the hunting community and public, e.g. sharing initiatives and safety messaging.)
14. Ultimate Holding Company: None. (The GAC is an independent statutory authority, not owned by any parent company.)
15. Key Shareholders: None. (It has no share structure; governance is by a ministerially appointed council rather than shareholders.)
16. Leadership: Chairperson: Grant Dodson (appointed 2020, Chief Executive of City Forests Ltd). Dodson succeeded inaugural chair Don Hammond (2014–2020). The Council comprises up to 11 volunteer members (“Councillors”) appointed by the Minister of Conservation, drawn from hunting, farming, science, and tourism backgrounds. The Council’s day-to-day executive leader is the CEO – currently Corina Jordan who has replaced Tim Gale who stepped down in January 2025.
17. Staff: The GAC is a small agency with a handful of staff (2–10 employees). Key staff include General Manager Tim Gale ; Jenny Wotten (Executive Officer / Administrator) ; and Kim Whitwell (Communications Advisor). Specialist contractors/advisors are engaged for projects (e.g. a Principal Advisor role is noted in annual reports). Many Council functions are also supported by volunteer effort from the Councillors themselves.
18. Staff that have held previous government roles: No core GAC employees are known to be former central-government officials. The inaugural Chair, Don Hammond, was later appointed by the government to chair the Minister’s Arms Advisory Group on firearms in 2021, reflecting a degree of crossover between GAC leadership and government advisory roles.
19. Past Employees: Garry Ottmann – chaired the Establishment Committee and served as an acting General Manager in the Council’s early years (largely in a voluntary capacity). Don Hammond – inaugural Council Chair (2014–2020) who oversaw GAC’s formation and first seven years; after completing his term in 2021 he moved on to other advisory roles. (The GAC’s Councillors are term-limited; Hammond’s departure and others’ rotations in 2020 marked the end of the inaugural Council cohort.)
20. Clients: None (not applicable). The Game Animal Council does not provide private consultancy services and therefore has no “clients.” Its stakeholders are the hunting community and the government (Minister/Department of Conservation) which it advises.
21. Industries/sectors represented: The GAC represents the hunting sector in New Zealand – encompassing recreational deer/pig/tahr hunters, trophy hunting tourism operators (including game estate owners and professional hunting guides), helicopter-based wild animal recovery and hunting businesses, hunting-related NGOs (e.g. deerstalkers associations), and associated outdoor recreation interests. By statute the Council’s role is to advocate for these interests and improve game animal management while also contributing to conservation outcomes.
22. Publicly Disclosed Engagements: The GAC regularly provides advice and submissions to government on hunting and wildlife management policies. It participated in developing the Himalayan Tahr Control Plan 2020–21, engaging with the Department of Conservation (DOC) to alter planned culling operations. It advocated for recognition of introduced game animals in the national Biodiversity Strategy 2020, which was achieved with deer, tahr, chamois and pigs being classified as “valued introduced species”. The Council also co-hosts forums and workshops with related agencies – for example, in July 2021 it joined NZ Fish & Game to convene a national “Hunting & Angling Influencers” forum on conservation and access issues. GAC meeting minutes and annual reports (available via OIA) detail further engagements, such as attending international conservation hunting conferences and meeting with stakeholders ranging from DOC and iwi to Safari Club International.
23. Affiliations: The GAC works in close alliance with major hunting and outdoor organisations. It has a particularly strong relationship with the New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association (NZDA) – often partnering on initiatives (e.g. joint social campaigns like “Hunters for Conservation” during Conservation Week). It collaborates with Fish & Game New Zealand, as both bodies advocate for hunters (Fish & Game focuses on game birds/fish, GAC on big game) – exemplified by jointly hosted events and mutual support at Parliament for pro-hunting causes. The Council also engages with specialised groups such as the NZ Tahr Foundation, Fiordland Wapiti Foundation, Sika Foundation, and Professional Hunting Guides Association, aligning efforts on game animal management and research. Internationally, GAC leadership has networked with groups like Safari Club International and the International Conservation Coalition to share hunting-conservation strategies (though this has drawn some criticism – see “Controversies”).
24. Sponsorships / Collaborations: The Council frequently collaborates rather than directly sponsoring external events (its budget is modest). Notable collaborations include the “Hunters for Conservation” campaign (with NZDA and DOC support), which highlighted volunteer conservation work by hunters. The GAC developed “Better Hunting”, a free online hunter training platform, in partnership with the Mountain Safety Council and supported by ACC (Accident Compensation Corp) to promote hunter education and safety. It has also worked with DOC on research projects (e.g. monitoring deer impacts) and with iwi and local communities on initiatives like deer repellent use in pest control operations. These collaborations illustrate GAC’s strategy of leveraging partnerships to extend its influence despite limited funding.
25. Events (held or organised by this organisation): The Game Animal Council holds quarterly Council meetings, which stakeholders and public can sometimes attend by arrangement. It organises workshops and forums for the hunting sector, such as the aforementioned national influencers forum (July 2021) bringing together hunting and fishing advocacy groups. In August 2024 the GAC celebrated its 10th Anniversary with a large event at Parliament’s Grand Hall, hosted by the new Minister for Hunting and Fishing (Hon. Todd McClay). This event was both a commemoration and a networking opportunity, acknowledging contributors to the Council’s work over the decade. GAC representatives also appear at hunting exhibitions, conferences and public hearings (for example, GAC chairs and staff have presented at Safari Club International conventions and DOC stakeholder meetings on tahr and wapiti management).
26. Political Donations: No known political donations. As a statutory entity funded by the Crown, the GAC itself is legally prohibited from making political donations. There is no public record of any Council funds or officials contributing financially to political parties. (The GAC exerts influence through policy channels and advice, not via electoral finance.) Key individuals associated with GAC have not been noted in electoral donation registers in any significant way.
27. Controversies: The Game Animal Council’s establishment and activities have been accompanied by significant criticism from conservation groups. Forest & Bird warned early on that a GAC “will benefit trophy hunters but harm native flora and fauna,” calling it an “elite body” taking over DOC functions for the benefit of wealthy hunters (including overseas trophy tourists). In 2018, Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage placed the GAC under review, questioning whether it was overstepping its statutory mandate. Revelations that GAC board members attended a Safari Club International convention in Las Vegas – and even discussed financially supporting an international pro-hunting lobby (the ICC) – on their own time raised eyebrows about the Council’s alignment with the global trophy hunting lobby. The GAC has also courted controversy by challenging DOC’s use of 1080 poison for pest control: under Don Hammond’s chairmanship the Council openly questioned the science behind 1080 operations, a stance Sage labelled “not helpful” given 1080’s importance to conservation programmes. More recently, the Council’s push to designate certain deer and elk populations as “Herds of Special Interest” has spurred legal action by Forest & Bird, who in 2024 argued that a co-management agreement in Fiordland could undermine conservation laws (though that dispute was later put on hold). Overall, critics accuse the GAC of privileging hunting interests (and trophy herd quality) at the expense of ecosystem health, a charge the Council denies, claiming it seeks a balance.
28. Other information of note: The GAC was born out of a political deal – it was a condition of the 2011 Confidence-and-Supply agreement between the National Party and UnitedFuture (led by pro-hunting MP Peter Dunne). Funding has been a recurrent concern: the Council was initially to be financed largely by a levy on trophy exports, but that levy was never implemented after consultation stalled. Instead, the GAC has relied on direct government funding (e.g. roughly NZ$600k from DOC over its first five years, with an annual grant of $225k in FY2018). The change of government in 2017 brought uncertainty – the Labour/Green administration showed skepticism toward the GAC, and for a time its future was “in the balance” under Minister Sage’s review. However, support from New Zealand First in that coalition ensured the GAC endured, and by 2020 it had gained legitimacy with hunting interests being explicitly acknowledged in biodiversity policy. In 2023, the incoming National/ACT/NZ First government went a step further, creating New Zealand’s first Minister for Hunting and Fishing to whom the GAC now reports. This elevation underscores the Council’s political influence and the importance of its sector. Notably, the GAC’s first chair, Don Hammond, was a farmer/forester who later also chaired the Minister’s Arms Advisory Group on firearms reform, reflecting the trust placed in GAC leadership on related policy issues. The Council’s trajectory – from a controversial concept to an embedded advisory body with a dedicated minister – is often cited as an example of a small interest group successfully entrenching itself in the policy-making apparatus of New Zealand.
29. Recipient of Wage Subsidy Scheme: No. There is no indication the Game Animal Council received Covid-19 Wage Subsidy payments. During the pandemic, the Council did assist in disseminating information to hunting-related businesses about accessing support, but the GAC itself (being government-funded and not revenue-dependent on sales) did not qualify for or seek wage subsidies.
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