Friend or foe?
The following featured ‘friends or foes’ offer just a snapshot of more than a thousand candidates across 150 electorates, so we implore you to do your own research before you head to the ballot box on July 2.
FOE: Mature Australia Party
There are many minor parties who will be doing their best to win your vote, but don’t be fooled by friendly names as not all parties support our chosen recreation. The Mature Australia Party (MAP) is one of them. In an article published on its website on February 4, titled ‘Don’t go the USA way!’, the MAP ignorantly praises “the very positive impact that our strict laws, introduced following the 1996 massacre, has had on such crimes throughout Australia since then…A massive national weapons buy-back followed, plus strict controls on gun ownership which has since been lauded, world-wide…but now some shooting enthusiasts want to reverse that. That cannot be allowed to happen.”
Some saving grace for the party is its call “for authorities, at all levels, to crack down harder on offenders who use guns or rifles to commit crimes of violence in our communities. That includes sterner enforceable penalties by our Courts.” But as many other uninformed and emotionally-led parties make the mistake of doing, the MAP appears to link legitimate firearms with a rise in violent crime and paint the flawed NFA as effective in stopping gun crime. So as an informed sporting shooter or hunter, stay clear of the MAP.