The Federal Election has been run and won and is now old news. As far as shooting went, with most firearms regulation happening at state level there wasn’t a lot to interest us until late in the campaign, when a press release landed from the Australian Alliance for Animals.
In short they were trumpeting commitments from The Greens, Animal Justice Party and others to ban the importation of hunting trophies. The Federal Labor Party had also agreed ‘in principle’ to legislate the ban. We immediately contacted both the ALP and Coalition for comment with only the latter replying, and we published that reply in an email to members before the election.
This is an important issue as hunting plays a crucial role in funding wildlife conservation in many countries. In fact, for a great article and some incredible pictures on this, pick up a copy of Australian Hunter 93 and see how hunting is driving the conservation of rare goats in Pakistan (SSAA members qualify for a discounted subscription to Australian Hunter).
I’ve seen it for myself in South Africa where private game reserves have used limited hunting to fund conservation efforts in their parks, seeing a regeneration of native habitat and revival of threatened species. It’s a brilliant success story. Oxford University published research on the matter some time ago and their conclusion was the same – hunting improves conservation.
This year, SSAA will be talking to the Federal Government to try to prevent this ban from being implemented and we’re going to need your help. Soon we’ll be asking you to contact the federal minister and your local federal MP to put your point of view so keep an eye out for that.
In May we celebrated some of the volunteers who make our clubs and sport possible and I’d again like to thank all our volunteers across the country for their contribution to our sport. What they do means we’re all better off. When you next visit your local SSAA range, why not thank one of the volunteers when you have the chance or, better still, join them and give some of your spare time to the club.
Recently we’ve recruited Charlotte Fox who replaces Rachael Oxborrow as our media and politics officer. Charlotte joins us from the state government in South Australia where she worked with two polices ministers and, before that, with the Victorian Farmers’ Federation and Livestock Australia. She grew up in regional South Australia and will be a valuable addition to our editorial team.