We now have both sides of politics listening to us; please note, I did say listening which does not include taking any notice of.
Last week in Parliament while debating the amendments to The Weapons Act, Mr LANGBROEK (Surfers Paradise,LNP)had this to say: ‘..
In preparing for this debate I have had feedback from numerous stakeholders, the Shooters Union Queensland, firearms dealers in Queensland, the Law Abiding Firearm Owners Inc., the Queensland Rifle Association, and pistol clubs and constituents of many members,. ‘
Later in his speech although he did not acknowledge us he quoted directly from our submission.
bUT, in the final analysis, when the totality of this speech and other LNP speeches is read they make it clear that they WILL NOT OPPOSE THE BILL. The LNP will be voting for the Bill, in total and without exception.
http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/hansard/2011/2011_09_08_DAILY.pdf Page 2922
It will be interesting to see how the Independents vote, and especially Aidan McLindon, the member for Beaudesert who has recently joined with Katter’s Australian Party.
Rather than allow our elected members of parliament to hide behind anonymity, we would like to force them to make their vote public and for that vote to be recorded in Hansard. To this end we phoned Liz Cunningham, the independent member for Gladstone. (Remember this courageous woman? She stood alone and voted against the amendments to the Weapons Act in 1996 which resulted in registration, compulsory club membership, the requirement for fixed term licences, PTAs etc). We asked if she would call for a division, so that the names of each and every individual who votes for this Bill is recorded - useful at the next election. She said that she already planned to do so but to have the names of those voting against the bill recorded, there have to be five votes against. The debate on this Bill will continue next sitting day - Tuesday 11th October, so to try to ensure that there are five voting against please contact your local politician, by phone, email, or letter, advising her/him to vote against the bill for these reasons:
1 increased penalties do not solve crimes
2 banning knives does not solve a knife problem; it only places restrictions on law abiding members of the community
3 all of the increased regulations on firearms do nothing to make the community safer, or to prevent or solve weapons crimes. They only place restrictions on the law abiding.
This will take you to a complete list of all Queensland politicians.
http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/Members/mailingLists/MEMLIST.pdf
Is the Labor Party listening to us? Remember, I am only talking about listening.
Last week we received a letter from the Police Minister’s office granting two concessions. Both of these concessions emanated from our discussions with the Minister and our letters to him.
The first concession is that we are to be given access to Australasian Police Ministers’ Council (APMC) resolutions. These resolutions are often used as the excuse for the increased regulation of firearm users; apart from the original resolutions in 1996 which followed Port Arthur, we have never before been given access to these resolutions. As we were advised in the Minister’s letter these ‘
resolutions are not generally made available to the public.’ However the letter goes on to say that ‘
steps are being taken to obtain approval for the release of the information that you (Shooters Union)
have requested.’ As far as we can establish, no other shooting organisation has previously been able to gain access to these resolutions.
The second concession is that the Queensland Police Service (QPS) is preparing a brief which will include the justification and evidence supporting any new changes to the Weapons Act. At a recent meeting with the Minister, the idea of a brief was put forward as a solution to our question about the need for all the changes. Both the Minister and the Inspector from WLB agreed that the brief would be a massive undertaking, but that it would be done.
Copies of both the APMC resolutions and the brief are to be made available to us and the other members of the review committee before the review committee meets. If these concessions come to fruition, they will be major advances. Before the review committee meets, we should know what decisions the police ministers have made and also what changes are proposed for the Weapons Act along with the justification and evidence supporting those changes: a significant achievement for Shooters Union.
A final but extremely important word - the only reason Shooters Union is being taken seriously and making advances, is because of the activities of its members. If you were not writing letters and emails or making phone calls to politicians we as an executive would not be taken seriously. Your work is essential, it is the foundation on which Shooters Union is built. Please keep up the good work, we have them listening, now let’ s get them working.
thank you,