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Asj Special Election Issue SPECIAL ELECTION ISSUE AUSTRALIANASJ SHOOTERS JOURNAL The political voice of the SSAA Pick a card Party Policies Politicians’ Profi les November 2001 Vol. 3 Issue 6 Members-only insert to the Australian Shooter In this issue A word from 3 the president Party Policies Offi cial national 4 fi rearm policies. Politicians’ Profi les Some of our 6 pro-shooting pollies. 10 11 12 13 16 SSAA meets ALP’s stand More on ADI - Media Ammuntion to with Mr Downer - on illegal gun Mr Howard signs infl uence - lobby by - Read the Foreign activity - off on ADI The buy-back Quotes and Minister’s letter to A letter from the propellants. revisited. graphs to con- the SSAA. Leader of the found the antis. Opposition. 2 Australian Shooters Journal TheASJ political voice A word from of the SSAA the President PO Box 2066, KENT TOWN, SA 5071 PHONE: 08 8272 7100 FAX: 08 8272 2945 his November Australians go to While it is not the SSAA’s role to tell Internet: www.ssaa.org.au the polls to decide who will members who they should vote for, as E-mail: govern the country for the next National President I would urge all shooters AS - [email protected] Tthree years. For shooters, elec- to seriously consider where they place their SSAA - [email protected] tions invariably raise the question of fi rearm support - especially when it comes to the policies and just who to vote for. With this Senate. The more pro-shooting politicians A MEMBER OF THE CIRCULATIONS in mind, the Association has put together there are in parliament, the stronger the AUDIT BOARD 96,922 an overview of the various parties and their voice in favour of gun-owners’ rights and the platforms, together with a few highlights harder it is for the anti-gun lobby to pursue This Journal is owned and published by from some noteworthy candidates. its agenda of abolishing private fi rearms the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Aus- tralia Inc. Opinions expressed herein are After some serious state election defeats ownership in Australia. The chance to have those of the authors and do not necessar- during the past few years, politicians from a direct impact on government only comes ily refl ect the policy of this Association. both sides have begun to see the light on gun around once every few years and shooters control. There has been a good deal more need to take full advantage of the opportunity CONTRIBUTIONS: Freelance contributions consideration shown for shooters’ legitimate to make a difference. are welcome. We do, however, recommend concerns on recent issues such as amend- that potential authors contact sub-editor Jennifer Martens prior to story drafting. ments to the Customs regulations and the Color slides and manuscripts may be sent maintenance of Australian Defence Indus- to the address shown above. tries (ADI) facilities. At the same time however, the Australian Democrats and the CONTRIBUTORS: Bill Shelton, Paul Peake, Greens have maintained a persistent anti- Gary Fleetwood. gun outlook, which is refl ected in their Bill Shelton No responsibility can be accepted for respective policy statements. National President errors and/or omissions. No text or photographs within the Journal may be republished, either electronically or in print, without the express written permission of the managing editor Tim Bannister. Copyright 2001. THE AUSTRALIAN SHOOTERS JOUR- NAL is published bi-monthly and is printed by PMP Print, Watson Ave, Netley, SA. Australian Shooters Journal 3 Party Policies by Paul Peake A looming federal election raises the question of political parties and their various fi rearm policies. The following overview provides a basic guide to the different groups and their positions on private gun ownership. actively assist by increasing access to Firearms appropriate facilities with additional The Party asserts the right of the law- Pauline Hanson’s shooting ranges. Existing ranges shall also abiding citizen to own and use fi rearms. be granted security of tenure. Self-funding We support the right of fi rearms dealers and cost recovery of such facilities shall be and others with legitimate reasons to have One Nation strongly encouraged. the right to carry a pistol for self-defence One Nation has a comprehensive pro-fi re- and public safety. arm policy that recognises shooting as a The repeal of federal legislation legitimate sport. The party supports the prohibiting the use of military-style fi rearms Hunting principle of self-defence and maintains that by civilians in approved military rifl e clubs The Party supports and will promote all disarming law-abiding Australians is not in under the provisions of the Defence Act. forms of legitimate recreational hunting. the national interest. One Nation’s platform contains a number of sensible proposals, including the following points taken from the Party’s web-site (www.onenation.com.au/ policies_fi rearms.htm): Shooter’s Liberal Register of Prohibited Persons To enable an instant record check to ensure Party Party those persons ineligible to own a fi rearm can be quickly identifi ed, we shall estab- The Shooter’s Party supports the right of At the time of writing, the Liberal Party lish a register of persons prohibited from law-abiding citizens to own and use fi re- does not have a formal fi rearms policy. The fi rearm ownership. Prohibited persons: ie, arms. It also supports the principle of self- Party was nevertheless responsible for those convicted of a violent offence. defence and seeks to promote recreational the gun laws forced on the various states hunting. and territories in the wake of the Shooting Ranges The following are the Party’s policies Australasian Police Ministers’ Council Security of tenure; In the interests of as published on its web site meeting in May 1996. Following the safe and responsible fi rearms use, we will (www.shootersparty.org.au/policy.htm): announcement of the APMC’s resolutions, 4 Australian Shooters Journal the Liberal Government initiated a ‘Buy- including its ‘Buy-back’ confi scation scheme. federal election, the Australian Democrats back’ scheme that ultimately saw the The following policy statements are taken released Peace and Disarmament Policy confi scation of hundreds of thousands of from the organisation’s web site No 41, which called for a complete ban on privately owned fi rearms. Under the (www.nationalparty.org): all fi rearm related publications, including heading ‘Highlights of the Government’s “The National Party believes people who magazines such as the Australian Shooter Achievements’ the Party openly boasts have the legal right and legitimate need to and the Australian Shooters Journal. about its confi scation program own and use a fi rearm should not be unrea- (www.liberal.org.au): sonably restricted by Government regula- “The Firearms Buy-back and Uniform tion or bureaucratic interference. Firearms Laws: The right of individuals to own fi rearms The Coalition provided the leadership to should not extend to anyone who has any The achieve uniform national fi rearms control record of instability, violent crime, the legislation as well as a buy-back of fi rearms unsafe use of weapons or drug or alcohol in the community. This has resulted in more dependency. Australian than 640,000 dangerous fi rearms being sur- Priority should be given to eliminating rendered under the fi rearm scheme. The the causes of crime and the social and eco- Coalition has made Australia a safer place, nomic conditions which have led to rising Greens particularly for women and children.” crime rates. Attention must be given to the infl uence of the visual media and its depic- When it comes to private fi rearms tion of both violence and the irresponsible ownership, the Australian Greens are use of fi rearms and other weapons.” ideological fi rst cousins to the Australian Democrats. Like their Democrat Australian counter-parts, the Greens are keen supporters of the anti-gun movement and back many of its initiatives, as evidenced Labor Party Australian by the following policy statements taken from the Party’s offi cial web site At the time of writing, the Labor Party (www.greens.org.au): does not have a formal fi rearms policy. Democrats “The Australian Greens will support However, the ALP has consistently sup- policies to: ported the anti-gun measures initiated as The Australian Democrats are outspo- part of the Liberal Government’s 1996 ken supporters of the anti-gun lobby. The a) Ensure that Australia will not produce ‘Buy-back’ confi scation scheme. Addition- Party’s platform contains a number of dan- weaponry or components for export… ally, Labor’s Shadow Minister for Justice, gerous anti-gun policies, including the fol- d) End arms trade fairs in Australia and Duncan Kerr, has said that a future Fed- lowing examples taken from its web site coordinate with neighbouring states on eral Labor Government may seek to limit (www.democrats.org.au): similar measures… private handgun ownership exclusively “The Democrats do not believe that Aus- f) Work to develop alternative regional to models used in Olympic-style events. tralia’s current gun laws go nearly far and UN-sponsored disarmament initiatives Conversely, party leader Kim Beazley has enough. with a capacity for binding verifi cation… given a written assurance that Labor does We are still strongly committed to hand- not intend to put any additional restric- ing the power over gun control laws over c) Support initiatives including tions on the possession of handguns. to the Commonwealth via a referendum of legislation, to make gun control an issue the people of Australia and we would like for the Commonwealth;
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