We’re doing the hard work for you to screen candidates. Meet the Shooters Union Endorsed Candidate for COOK – TANIKA PARKER
Shooter’s Union Australia delegate, David Brown interviews Member for Hill Shane Knuth & Cook Candidate Tanika Parker.
This is your opportunity to learn more about the concerns in your electorate and how your candidate plans to make improvements.
Tune in and MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT!
We’re doing the research for you, so you don’t have to.
Meet your Candidate in Condamine. GREG PRIEBE
Shooter’s Union Australia delegate, David Brown interviews Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party candidate Greg Priebe
This is your opportunity to learn more about the concerns in your electorate and how your candidate plans to make improvements.
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Shooter’s Union Australia President, Graham Park interviews Member for Gympie Anthony Perrett.
This is your opportunity to learn more about the concerns in your electorate and how your candidate plans to make improvements.
Tune in and MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT!
We have a very real chance at voting out the ALP in Queensland’s state election (set for October 31) – and we need every single one of you reading this to help make it happen.
A story in The Australian on July 31st – “Popular Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk but poll party postponed” (paywalled)” – notes a Newspoll survey is putting the LNP on track for a very narrow win at the election.
As per the story: “On Newspoll’s numbers, only six Labor seats would fall to the conservatives, leaving them to stitch together a minority administration with Katter’s Australian Party, independents and possibly One Nation.”
Getting Labor out of Government is the first step to ensuring our rights are respected and that the political assaults on the most law-abiding sector of the community cease.
VOTE LABOR LAST. Put them below The Greens. Put them below the Animal Rights Party. Put them below the independent candidate you’ve never heard of before.
Vote One for a Pro-shooting party like Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) or Pauline Hanson’s One Nation (PHON). If you want to vote for a Major, vote LNP.
Whatever you do: VOTE LABOR LAST.
The ALP government hates you and does not trust you – look at what they have done to us this year alone:
Time and time again, the ALP has demonstrated nothing but contempt for Queensland’s law-abiding shooters.
We hoped they got the message after the successful Flick’Em campaign at the last election (which resulted in the lowest major party primary vote in Queensland history), but clearly they weren’t listening, or arrogantly assumed we’d forget.
WRONG.
There are 200,000 licensed shooters in Queensland and we all have friends and family. The ALP’s hatred of law-abiding shooters is a matter of public record and every single one of us needs to take a stand.
They won’t listen to us anywhere except at the ballot box.
Make them pay for their arrogance, hatred, discrimination and hoplophobia.
VOTE LABOR LAST IN THE QUEENSLAND STATE ELECTIONS
Authorised by J Linsley, 61 Arthur Street Dalby QLD 4405, for Shooters Union Australia.
THE Queensland Government’s spiteful war on struggling businesses must end today, according to one of the country’s peak lobby groups.
In March, the state’s Chief Health Officer issued an order closing every gun shop and armourer in the state as part of the COVID-19 response. Following intense pressure and from industry, agricultural and rural representatives, that was amended a few days later to allow rural landowners and volunteer pest controllers to buy ammunition and reloading components, but still
prevented target shooters, recreational hunters, and competition pistol shooters from buying ammunition or using police-issued Permits To Acquire for firearms.
Shooters Union Australia president Graham Park said with the notoriously anti-gun Western Australia now having lifted their trade restrictions and Victoria – also helmed by a Labor premier – having followed soon after, Queensland had no excuse to keep preventing licensed shooters
from buying ammunition or vital equipment.
“There is no – I repeat: absolutely none whatsoever – public health emergency justification for restricting the trade of licensed gun shops and armourers in Queensland or anywhere else, for that matter. There wasn’t one at the start of this mess and there isn’t one now,” he said.
“It is obviously a political move; only the Labor state governments restricted gun shop trading.
The decision was not an outcome of the formal National Cabinet meetings, from what we understand.
“The home confinement directions have largely been lifted, outdoor shooting ranges are open again while exercising social distancing, and non-essential retail shopping is expressly permitted so why are Queensland’s shooters and associated businesses being punished?”
The toll on affected businesses from the trade restrictions was enormous, Mr Park said, with a number of gun shops facing financial ruin from having their livelihoods yanked out underneath them without any justification.
“These were viable local businesses, an important part of their community, and shut down because someone in Brisbane doesn’t like guns and decided to take advantage of a crisis to further their own agenda,” he said.
“Every hour Queensland’s gun shops and armourers remain restricted in trade just adds to the mountain of proof this decision has been made to hurt law-abiding firearms owners and the businesses supporting them.”
Mr Park blasted the State Government’s refusal to justify themselves on the restrictions and said they needed to be held to account.
“We have not received a single response to any of the numerous letters and e-mails we have sent the Premier, and the only response we have received from the Chief Health Officer’s office was clearly written by a staffer and reiterated the changes allowing rural landowners and volunteer pest controllers to buy ammunition – changes we helped negotiate in the first place.
“The contempt the Palaszczuk Government has shown to Queensland’s law-abiding shooting community is simply incredible.
“They haven’t even given us the courtesy of an obvious and half-baked lie as to why they’ve done it – we’ve heard absolutely nothing.
“We guarantee there will be consequences at the ballot box in October for the way Queensland shooters have been treated by the ALP. We’re going to make sure of it.”
CONTACT DETAILS:
President Graham Park: president@shootersunion.com.au or 0418 700 320
Media director Royce Wilson: media@shootersunion.com.au or 0410 645 035
The Hon. Mark Ryan MP
Queensland Police Minister
Via e-mail to police@ministerial.qld.gov.au
April 20, 2020
Dear Mr Ryan,
We note your April 16, 2020 dated response to Petition 3282-20, in which you reject the plea of the petitioners to reclassify firearm sound suppressors (“silencers”) from Category R to Category A under the Weapons Categories Regulation 1997.
We are concerned you have not given the matter genuine consideration and have not addressed the issue raised in the petition. Your response mentions the Port Arthur tragedy, yet suppressors were not used in that incident and we remain baffled as to why you would even bring it up in this context.
There is no such thing as “a permanently inoperable silencer”. If a suppressor/silencer is rendered inoperable, it is no longer a device capable of suppressing the sound of a gunshot and is, per the legislation, therefore not a Category R weapon.
Your response states “Queensland remains committed to the spirit of the National Firearms Agreement. Therefore, in the interests of safety, I can advise that there is no intention to remove silencers from Category R weapons at this time.”
Mr Ryan, suppressors are safety equipment. There is a mountain of evidence on the subject – evidence we would be only too happy to direct you towards, had you or one of your staff asked.
Suppressors do not totally silence gunshots. They bring the noise down from 130dB to around 90-100dB, which is still very loud, but will not cause immediate hearing damage to the firer, startle pest animals some distance away, or keep the residents of neighbouring farms awake at night.
The gunshot is still clearly audible, but it is not deafening.
We also note suppressors or silencers are not covered in the National Firearms Agreement (which is not legislation anyway) and that a number of states – including New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria – make suppressors available to licensed firearms users for occupational purposes such as pest control or agricultural reasons.
There is absolutely no valid reason – none whatsoever – that the same could not be true of Queensland. Call of Duty video games and secret agent movies are not a sound basis for making legislative decisions, and frankly we are all tired of having something that happened nearly 25 years ago constantly being used as a mantra-like parroted justification to refuse matters like those raised in the petition.
We appreciate the Labor party apparently does not like guns, especially in the hands of hunters and sporting shooters, but please do not insult our intelligence by dismissing sensible firearm issues being raised by constituents – who can back their requests with facts and evidence – with trite responses that sound like one of your staffers did a quick Google search at 4pm on a Friday and didn’t understand or agree with what they saw.
Dismissive and irrelevant responses like that provided to this petition undermine Queenslanders’ already shaky confidence in parliamentary petitions, which have an extremely short track record of achieving legislative change this century as it is.
To say we are disappointed in your response to this matter is an understatement. There is an election in October and Queensland’s 200,000 licensed firearms users expect better from their elected representatives.
Yours sincerely,
Graham Park
President, Shooters Union Australia
E: president@shootersunion.com.au | Ph: 0418 700 320
Dr Jeanette Young
Queensland Chief Health Officer
Via E-mail
March 28, 2020
Dear Dr Young,
I write regarding the “Direction from Chief Health Officer in accordance with emergency powers arising from the declared public health emergency (No. 3)” issued by you March 27, 2020.
As part of this direction, “Licensed armourers and licensed dealers as defined under the Weapons Act 1990” are declared non-essential and ordered to close.
Why have you made this declaration, Dr Young? What public health risk do gun shops and armourers – businesses that are only patronised by people with firearms licences, who have undergone stringent background checks – pose in Queensland at present?
I remind you that under Queensland law, a person must have a firearms licence AND a valid Permit To Acquire issued by the police Weapons Licensing Branch before they can purchase a firearm. It is not possible for anyone – licensed or unlicensed – to walk into a gun shop, buy a gun, and immediately leave with it. A firearms licence is also required to purchase ammunition.
It is patently ridiculous that under your declaration farmers, hunters and other licensed firearms owners can no longer buy ammunition or spare parts – all of which are essential items for them – yet it is entirely possible for people to go to a major shopping centre and purchase such frivolities as scented candles, cheap costume jewellery, or decorative homewares.
Why is a candle shop or fashion jewellery store considered essential, yet a licensed firearms dealer is not?
Given the absurdity of this situation, and the uncertainty and ill-will this declaration is creating amongst Queenslanders – particularly the confusing rules regarding which businesses are “essential” (as the Government’s version clearly does not pass the pub test) – we formally request that you:
This is a serious and unprecedented situation and the Government must be seen to be acting on facts and evidence, not feelings, optics or political agenda.
The economic impacts of this decision will be severe for the state’s firearms industry, along with related industries – all of whom play a vital part in our state’s economy.
Being seen to treat all Queenslanders equally is critical at this time, and we suggest this Declaration does not reflect that.
Yours sincerely,
Graham Park
President, Shooters Union Australia
E: president@shootersunion.com.au | Ph: 0418 700 320
The Hon. Annastacia Palaszczuk
Premier of Queensland
Via E-mail to thepremier@premiers.qld.gov.au
March 28, 2020
Dear Ms Palaszczuk,
I write regarding the “Direction from Chief Health Officer in accordance with emergency powers arising from the declared public health emergency (No. 3)” issued by the state’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Jeanette Young, at 10:43pm on March 27, 2020.
As part of this direction, “Licensed armourers and licensed dealers as defined under the Weapons Act 1990” were declared non-essential and ordered to close.
We say this declaration is clearly incorrect and on behalf of every law-abiding firearms user in Queensland, we formally request you declare licensed firearms dealers, armourers and other members of the firearms industry to be an Essential Business in Queensland.
Licensed firearms dealers and armourers provide an essential service to every single farmer, grazier, hunter, feral pest control and licensed firearms owner in Queensland. They supply ammunition needed to control pest animals in rural areas, and they supply the parts need to keep firearms operating.
It is patently ridiculous that right now, farmers, hunters and other licensed firearms owners can no longer buy essential ammunition or parts, yet people can to go to a major shopping centre and purchase completely non-essential items like decorative homewares or designer fashion.
It is clear the Government’s definition of an “essential business” does not pass the ‘pub test’ in this case and once again we request you rectify this and ensure the state’s firearms industry is officially classified as an Essential Business – because it is.
Yours sincerely,
Graham Park
President, Shooters Union Australia
E: president@shootersunion.com.au | Ph: 0418 700 320
Shooters Union HQ have been advised by the Weapons Licensing Branch in Queensland that there may be a delay of a few days in processing Permits To Acquire (PTAs) for the next few months, while the branch undergoes some much-needed systems improvements and backlog clearance.
We understand that for the next few months, PTA applications will be the subject of short delays, potentially taking up to 14 days to process.
The reason for this is WLB are undertaking a special project to clear the backlog of Form 10s (the pink Dealer Transaction forms) and the Notices of Disposal (the part of PTAs which get sent back to WLB to confirm which gun you acquired with it).
WLB tell us they process more than 1000 PTAs every week, which is a lot of Form 10s and Notices of Disposal; hence the backlog and need to update and improve the systems there.
We understand that once the backlog is cleared, the improved processes and systems should mean that PTA processing will return to their current efficient turnaround time.
While delays in processing PTAs are frustrating, especially when you’re looking forward to picking up a new gun, we are hopeful the backlog clearing and process improvements will streamline things generally in the future.
For now, we’re asking our members to be patient during the process and understand it should lead to improvements all around – including in PTA processing – and suggest you avoid contacting WLB with “Where’s my PTA?”-type queries until well after the 14 day expected processing time has passed.
Calls to restrict toy guns in Queensland are ludicrous and represent a thought bubble that needs to be popped immediately, the country’s pre-eminent pro-firearms peak body says.
Police Minister Mark Ryan has stated he has raised the issue of restricting gel blasters – which are legally toys and incapable of hurting anyone – with the state’s Police Commissioner and said he understood the Queensland Police Service was considering if any regulations governing the items could be changed.
Shooters Union Australia has utterly rejected the idea the toys should be restricted, with president Graham Park pointing out they cannot fire real ammunition and cannot cause physical injury.
“They fire a small water-filled gel ball at low velocity with low force,” he said. “I’ve been shot with one at close range on purpose to test their effect and can tell you from personal experience they do not cause any pain whatsoever. It’s like being hit with a water gun.
“I’ve had sneezes which hurt more.”
Mr Park had no sympathy whatsoever for people who were scared by gel blaster’s resemblance to actual firearms and said it was not a reason to consider restricting or banning them or anything else.
“They’re just toys and they can’t actually hurt you,” he said. “Almost no-one in Queensland has a real M4 carbine or AK-47, so if you see what looks like an actual assault rifle outside a museum in the hands of anyone besides the police or military, it’s almost certainly a toy or replica – neither of which can hurt you.”
Since being declared toys in Queensland following a landmark court case last year, gel blasters have become hugely popular for paintball-like games, with a number of businesses springing up to support them.
“The reality is access to gel blasters has given tens of thousands of people the motivation to get outside and get with their friends and like-minded players,” Mr Park said.
“How can anyone possibly be against encouraging people to get active and socially involved, especially in this day and age?”
Shooters Union Australia is a leading peak body representing the more than one million lawful firearms users in Australia.
CONTACT DETAILS:
President Graham Park: president@shootersunion.com.au or 0418 700 320
Media Officer Royce Wilson: media@shootersunion.com.au or 0410 645 035
Shooters Union Australia Defending Shooters' Rights