ACT has proposed transferring responsibility for game animals on conservation land from the Department of Conservation (DOC) to the Game Animal Council, with deputy leader Nicole McKee announcing the policy at the Hunting & Wildlife Expo on 25 July 2026 (RNZ).

The party's conservation spokesperson, Cameron Luxton, said hunting groups were already contributing hundreds of hours towards conservation efforts, including track maintenance, hut maintenance, and predator control. ACT's argument, set out in its "Hunters, Not Bureaucrats, Should Lead Conservation" policy released via Scoop's community platform, is that recreational hunting itself delivers conservation benefits as a method for game animal management (ACT Party; Scoop).

The Game Animal Council was established in 2013. ACT proposes empowering it beyond its current consultation role and funding it with money currently allocated to DOC for managing game animals (RNZ).

The policy package contains several legislative measures. ACT proposes recognising game animal and game-bird species as "natural resources to be sustainably managed" in legislation. Certain game herds, such as Stewart Island whitetail deer, would be designated as "Herds of Special Interest". The party also proposes rewarding hunters for verified conservation outcomes and improving hunting access to public land (RNZ).

On enforcement, ACT proposes creating infringement offences for interfering with hunts, including interference via drones and helicopters (RNZ).

The proposal touches on a long-running tension in New Zealand conservation management. Introduced game animals, including deer species, are simultaneously a recreational resource and a documented threat to native forest regeneration. DOC's current approach treats them primarily as pests to be controlled, particularly in priority conservation areas. Hunters, through the Game Animal Council and organisations like the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association, have long argued that managed herds can coexist with conservation objectives and that local knowledge is underused.

ACT's framing attempts to bridge that gap by proposing statutory recognition of game animals as resources alongside conservation obligations, with accountability tied to verified outcomes rather than bureaucratic oversight. The proposal to redirect DOC funding to the Game Animal Council would shift the institutional locus of decision-making over herd management on conservation land, a significant structural change if advanced through legislation.

The broader context here is the coalition dynamic. ACT sits alongside National and NZ First in the coalition government, and conservation policy on public land has historically required careful negotiation between competing constituencies. Whether this proposal gains traction in the coalition agreement process, or remains an ACT positioning document ahead of the next election cycle, will depend on the willingness of National in particular to countenance a structural reduction in DOC's responsibilities over conservation estate species management.