Western Australia’s new gun laws, which are an even greater departure from th National Firearms Agreement than before, create an unprecedented situation that must not be repeated in other states, according to former Senator Nigel Scullion.
Mr Scullion spoke about the implications of Western Australia’s gun laws and the lessons learnt from the lost battle to have them fixed.
“In my [post-Parliamentary] life so I’ve actually managed to do five trips around Australia, probably 50/50 shooting and fishing all the time, and it was great to be under this illusion the National Firearms Agreement had allowed me to move from jurisdiction to jurisdiction seamlessly,” he said.
“Unfortunately, that isn’t a reality in Western Australia. If you have a firearms license in the Northern Territory or anywhere else, it is worthless in Western Australia.”
He said the situation in WA was unprecedented, with a Government completely ignoring industry, and it was clear that the shooting community needed to present a united front in other jurisdictions to prevent a repeat of the situation.
“Despite significant resources and lobbying from West Australian Firearms Community Alliance [and] a lot of resources from others — from SSAA, assistance from SIFA, Shooters Union … lots of people around Australia assisted — but despite that I think a reasonable person would say they really failed to achieve any real impact in what the government wanted,” he said.
“We can’t control whether the government has 95% [of the seats in Parliament], although I think we can certainly have an impact.
“I believe we need a single united well-funded representative body — not a new one.
“I really like the model from West Australia of an alliance of existing groups, and that body really needs to develop and deliver a political strategy, and an education strategy, and an engagement strategy.”
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