More than $100,000 has been raised to help fund the establishment of a new outdoor recreation and industry group focused on the needs of hunters and recreational shooters in Western Australia.
The as-yet unnamed group is being formed by former WA upper house MP Louise Kingston, Shooters Union WA state advocate Steve Harrison, well-known WA-based shooting YouTuber Mark Else (from Mark and Sam After Work) and administrator Nick Tonkin, all of whom are acting in their capacities as individuals.
Shooters in Western Australia are dealing with the impacts of the hated Firearms Act 2024 and the related regulations — which have been referred Standing Committee on Legislation for a full review and report following a successful parliamentary motion by Shadow Attorney-General Nick Goiran.
The “consultation” process for the laws was widely regarded as somewhere between “non-existent” and “woefully insufficient”, with hunters and recreational shooters in particular feeling left out of, or overlooked, in the proceedings.
A GoFundMe campaign was recently organised to establish interest in an outdoor recreation and industry representative group, and whether it would be viable — with both things being confirmed as the fundraiser has secured more than $100,000 in a few weeks.
Ms Kingston said the group would be modelled on the hugely successful WA Speedway Commission, which was established in 2001 with her involvement, and brought together a “very fragmented and dysfunctional” speedway community which Ms Kingston said was facing extinction due to insurance hikes in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks unless they came together as a collective.
Now, the Speedway Commission acts as the official interface between the state government and the sport of speedway, providing professional liaison and ensuring its members’ concerns are properly represented in discussions about government matters affecting the sport.
Western Australia’s shooting community is particularly fragmented, and the vast majority of shooters — notably hunters and recreational shooters — lack effective representation, which is something the new group hopes to fix.
In an effort to prevent the group being hijacked by organisations or ‘big personalities’, membership of the new group will be on an individual basis and rather than having a single chairperson, there will be three.
These three chairs will oversee different aspects of the organisation, such as PR, marketing, administration, legal, and so on; subcommittees under them will drive the day-to-day elements of the activities.
Ms Kingston said decisions will be made as a collective, rather than one board, with members’ ideas feeding into that collective to inform the decision-making process.
The initial focus is on representing shooters — particularly hunters and recreational shooters — in the fight against the Firearms Act 2024 and its regulations, but Ms Kingston said that longer term the plan was to expand to cover what she called the “Five F Communities” — firearms, fishing, four-wheel driving, forestry and farming.
“They are all under attack by government, having things taken away without consultation, and most of them don’t tell their stories well,” she said.
The new group’s organisers have been absolutely blown away the amount of support the initiative had been shown, with Steve Harrison saying the community response proved the proposal was viable, and the organisers were proceeding with the first stage of establishing the group.
“We have pushed the big green button and have engaged a legal firm to assist us with some of the tricky bits on the setting-up pathway,” he said. “This will be the first cost levied against the GoFundMe donations.
“When we reach incorporation we will be calling for nominations for the executive positions and also move forward to our first formal meeting where the membership can exercise their vote.
“It’s still a little way off but suffice to say, none of us have been sitting on our hands.”
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