Recently the Victorian Government announced its plans for firearms reform and the good news is they’re not going to introduce limits or caps on the number of firearms we can own. But they are going to make some changes we’ll need to keep an eye on, such as proposing health checks and tightening rules around citizenship. Some states, like NSW, have limited licences to Australian and New Zealand citizens, though the SSAA believes there are good reasons to allow permanent residents to own a licence too.
SSAA (Victoria) is in close contact with their state government and will work with them to advocate for shooters there to make sure the new laws are fair and reasonable. It has to be said that, surprisingly for many, the Victorian Labor Government has been quite good in regard to shooting. They refused to ban duck hunting and have decided, on their own initiative, to build huts on public land for use by hunters. And now they’ve resisted Federal Government pressure to introduce caps.
And let’s not lose sight of the fact we’ve had a number of good wins now. Queensland and the Northern Territory were very quick out of the blocks to back rational policy over Chris Minns’ and Anthony Albanese’s kneejerk distraction politics. If they made changes, it was to seek to punish illegal firearm ownership instead of law-abiding firearms owners. South Australia indicated it had no plans to adopt limits or re-classifications. We were nervous before the state election but they reaffirmed this after the votes were counted.
Tasmania has rejected caps but announced reclassifications, although that state is still in flux and SSAA (Tasmania) is working hard there. It’s possible they’ll make no changes but equally, the Labor Party and The Greens are threatening to move amendments introducing caps, so that state is still up for grabs. Western Australia have made their changes and are refusing to make any further amendments.
The ACT currently has legislation in parliament to introduce caps, though SSAA (ACT) is hard at work and even the parliamentary inquiry, full of Labor and Greens MPs, showed little enthusiasm for caps or much else in the way of changes. New South Wales has already legislated and, if stories of meetings with Labor MPs are to be believed, they’re already regretting their haste.
So what do we do from here? Firstly, let’s get out there and continue to enjoy our sport. Go shooting, visit your range, go hunting, introduce a mate to shooting or help someone secure their licence. Secondly, if you live in the ACT or Tasmania, get in touch with the MPs in your electorate (you both have multi-member electorates) and let them know you don’t support caps and will vote accordingly.
Thirdly, let’s get ready to help our fellow shooters in the upcoming NSW elections. SSAA (NSW) will lead the response, though there will be a lot to do and plenty of opportunities for all of us to be involved. We’ll let you know as we get closer to the date so don’t lose hope. In fact, do the opposite, take heart from the wins we’ve had and let’s push back from here. The government response to the Bondi tragedy woke us all up. Now let’s keep moving forward – there’s a lot of work to do.