In what may come as a surprise to some, the Greens have called for publicly funded professional hunters to be brought in, legislation to be relaxed to remove restrictions on deer hunting, and a mix of contraception and sterilisation employed to keep numbers down.

Campaigning in Wollongong on Wednesday before the NSW election, Greens firearms spokesman David Shoebridge said deer should no longer be given game status for recreational hunting, and should be treated as a pest.

He wants the scrapping of laws which prohibit using spotlights and attractant devices to hunt deer, and their culling no longer done on an ad-hoc basis by recreational hunters.

Deer's popularity as a target for hunters had meant strong steps to eradicate pest deer had not been taken, Mr Shoebridge said, and the NSW government's approach of allowing amateur hunters to kill deer had poor results for animal welfare.

"We want to get rid of the artificial restrictions that mean the professional, skilled and humanely oversighted shooters are unable to engage in population control," he said. "The best solution that's available now is a human RSPCA-oversighted culling program with professional shooters, but that needs to be coupled with a significant investment in non-lethal control measures, because the non-lethal control measures are the things that work year-in, year-out."

Mr Shoebridge said the cost would be between $2 million and $4 million to get the program started over a number of years.

"When you weigh that up against the environmental damage and property damage, as well as the injuries to individuals who come into conflict with these deer in their motor vehicles - we think that's something the government should be serious about."

The Mercury visited Keiraville property owner Keith Tognetti, who said the wild deer came onto his land almost every day, eating any trees he had planted, stomping tracks along the creek line, and causing significant erosion that would worsen the effect of flooding.

Wearing a deerstalker hat, Mr Tognetti told the Mercury how one rogue deer broke a large pot as it was scratching itself against the door.

"They're coming down in herds of up to eight, sometimes 10," he said. "They've denuded my whole block. They should be categorised as vermin instead of game."

Deer on the escarpment have previously been targeted by recreational shooters.

Greens candidate for Keira Elena Martinez said she had seen recreational hunters on public escarpment walking tracks with hunting bows, looking for deer, which was more dangerous than a professional culling program.

She said research by Wollongong City Council showed that thousands of deer living in the escarpment were causing many hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to property.

That research showed deer were most prevalent in the area between Mount Kembla and Mount Ousley, down to Figtree and Keiraville. In the north, they are mainly around Helensburgh and Otford, although other suburbs are also affected.

blangford@fairfaxmedia.com.au