It is important for GAC Council members and staff to engage with the wider New Zealand hunting community and other stakeholders and discuss how we can help improve hunting opportunities and contribute to good conservation outcomes. Participating in sector events and carrying out surveys are an important way of doing that.
On this page:
2025 Hunter insights
At the 2025 Sika Show, the GAC ran an online survey to understand key concerns relating to hunting and game animal management in New Zealand, and what they thought could be done about this. We also included these questions in our 2025 Better Hunting survey. 259 responses were provided at the Sika Show and an additional 54 through the Better Hunting survey.
Some key findings include:
- Access is the strongest, most consistent category across both concerns and suggestions to improve hunting and game animal management. Without reliable access, hunters cannot support game animal management, conservation, or gather meat for their whānau.
- Hunters overwhelmingly support game animal management to benefit both the animals and the environment, particularly management that includes hunters and does not have elimination as an objective. They support locally tailored management and greater ability for hunters to contribute.
- Environmental protection is a major theme. Hunters are generally positive towards management and want to be treated as partners, not obstructionists, in managing game animals and the environment.
- Toxin use is one of the sector’s most polarising issues with many hunters seeing this as an environmental problem, not just a problem for game animals and hunting.
- Hunters support higher standards of safety and ethical hunting, and want responsible behaviour promoted.
- There is an appetite for more partnerships and working together across local, regional and national levels.
View the 2025 Hunter Insights memo here (PDF File)
2025 Stakeholder survey
The GAC undertook its first Stakeholder Survey in 2025 to:
- Assess the quality of stakeholder engagement with the GAC over the previous 12 months.
- Understand stakeholder perceptions and priorities.
- Identify areas for improvement in GAC’s communication and engagement work.
- Support GAC’s statutory functions under the Game Animal Council Act 2013, including advising the Minister, raising awareness of hunter views, and liaising with stakeholders.
Results will be used to identify areas the GAC can make improvements in the provision of timely relevant advice, transparent communication, and quality engagement.
Undertaken as a pilot, this first survey was sent to organisations that the GAC engages with very regularly. Overall, the results show that respondents appear to be satisfied with the GAC’s communication and engagement. There are things to work on, but we can be confident in the general direction of travel, particularly when it comes to our ongoing work with hunting sector stakeholders. There are several specific comments that the GAC will consider as ways to improve our communication and engagement with specific stakeholders.
View the 2025 Stakeholder Survey report here (PDF File)
2022 Hunter survey
In November 2022, the GAC ran an online survey to gauge the thoughts of hunters on matters relating to what impacts their hunting, game animal management, the condition of the animals and environment where they hunt and what they would like to see from the GAC’s advocacy into the future.
Some key findings include:
- Over 67% of respondents said that access is the biggest issue impacting hunting in their region.
- Over 50% said their primary reason to go hunting was meat hunting for family/whānau/community.
- The next biggest reason respondents said they go hunting is for recreation/wellbeing (36%).
- Access and hunter engagement in management were the two biggest issues that respondents wanted the GAC’s advocacy work to focus on in 2023.
View the 2022 Hunter Survey report here (PDF File)
Sika Show
The annual Sika Show is the largest hunting and outdoor trade show in Australasia and has been operating since 1993. With over 10,000 attendees, we value the opportunity to talk to hunters and outdoor enthusiasts about the issues important to them. The Show is also a great chance to engage with hunting organisations such as Safari Club International – NZ Chapter, the Sika Foundation, NZDA, Fiordland Wapiti Foundation, and the NZ Tahr Foundation, as well as other sector stakeholders. The GAC’s online hunter training platform, Better Hunting, was launched at the 2023 Sika Show.
NZDA
Representatives from the GAC regularly attend and participate in the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association (NZDA) Annual Conference.
We also attend NZDA branch meetings and engage with members on a range of topics or projects.
Presentations
The GAC presents to different hunting and non-hunting groups, sharing information about the GAC, what we do, game animal management, hunting in New Zealand and more. If you’d like someone from the GAC to present to your group, please email info@nzgac.org.nz.