THE NSC HAS OFFERED to work with the Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia (SIFA) on the recent announcement by FedEx / TNT Express that it will cease transporting firearms and ammunition in Australia.
The news, which was first broken to the NSC through our industry channels, has also been reported on SIFA’s website which can be seen by clicking here.
After being approached by several suppliers earlier this year about restrictions that had already been placed on the movement of firearms, the NSC started speaking with FedEx’s Managing Director of Legal services, Mr Michael Brennan.
While these discussions continued for several months, it was clear that their mind may have already been made up.
Competition law: why the words “substantially lessening competition” matter
In his response to the NSC which arrived this week, Mr Brennan denied that FedEx’s conduct is “substantially lessening competition” in the firearms market.
While that phrase will seem to be an odd one to use, it has a very important meaning. It’s a legal phrase used in ‘competition law’ that can cost companies millions of dollars in penalties – and jail time for those involved.
It is there to keep markets open and operating fairly, including from the abuse of “market power”.
We know that because it’s something we have expertise in.
Our experience with competition law. And the freight industry
One of the executive members of the NSC is a former investigator with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
He helped lead the Melbourne part of the ACCC’s national investigation and prosecution of TNT Australia and others for cartel conduct in the freight industry which led to fines of $11m.
While the executive member is no longer with the ACCC and the nature of this allegation different, his first hand experience in competition law – and in particular with the express freight market – could be a major asset to SIFA. At the very least, it’s an avenue of co-operation that can help our industry fight back over treatment like this.
We’ll let you know if SIFA takes up the offer.
FedEx’s CEO – a shooter?
In the meantime, the CEO of FedEx internationally is Mr Frederick Smith (pictured) who we understand from an industry source that Mr Smith is an enthusiastic shooter and gun collector.
We have written to Mr Smith on that understanding, seeking his support to have the ban by the Australian arm of his business overturned.
We’ll let you know if we hear from him.
Ironically, in 2018 – and on the topic of gun policy – FedEx released the following statement which is still on their website:
Unfortunately it looks like the memo never reached Australia.
If you’re a competition law expert interested in helping to make this matter TNT Competition Law Court Case Mk2, why not drop us a line (by clicking here)?
Excellent work !! Where the hell is the SSAA while this is going on?
This is simply a trial run to see if they can get away with it in Oz, if so then they will do America
The same place SSAA is on every important LAFO issue: nowhere.
They’re bloody useless.
—- are too busy counting the money from their membership to actually care. They have become way too big, and arrogant. Just like Telstra. They do not care about members any more, and I am speaking from personal experience.
SSAA are where they always are. Hiding in the shadows waiting for a winner so they can come out and claim the victory all over their social media pages.
SSAA asleep at the wheel of course !
Great work as usual,its why I pay up to be a member to help out.
What is the best name, how do you some up a name for the most corrupt people who walk on the face of the earth???? Mmmmmm
Big businesses, politicians, government busi’poliment
Corruption is absolutely rampant in all of them.
We’re the he’ll has SIFA been in the last 5 years ,haven’t heard boo from them
Glad i’m a member of the NSC when i see articles like this pop up. We can always rely of them to dig deeper and search further in comparison to whats been done in the past. Now I just want to see all shooting organisations realise that we all share common ground and work together, Thats the dream.
They are known as the cabal/deep state around the world as per on Fox News or The Great Awakening website.
One also has to remember that SSAA is a registered NGO so they can work/deal with the United Nations on stopping the proliferation of small arms, for our safety of course!
SIFA would be absolute FOOLS to knock back the offer of the NSC.
The silence of SIFA has been absolutely deafening thus far on this most important, biased and stupidly infantile decision by FedEx/TNT. Legally, they don’t have a leg to stand on. It would be a wise idea on their part to have a good, long, hard look at the quality of their legal advisors, if, in fact, they even consulted them before making complete fools of themselves.
This FedEx/TNT policy could spread Worldwide-wide, so therefore NSC may be able to get assistance or lobbying in other countries done by counterparts like the National Rifle Association USA with such good work, I’m looking forward to getting my NSC membership renewal!
It’s been a couple of years since the local business I used to source ammo from in Queensland’s central west stopped providing that service.
One of the reasons they gave us at the time was “freight companies will no longer transport powder to our location, if we wish to keep stocking it we now have to make a 14 hour return trip and collect it ourselves”.
Something which of course they decided was no longer a viable business operation, so they stopped.
It would be nice once again to be able to source ammo locally and no longer have to travel many hours or be forced to rely on “licensed friends away on holidays etc.” to source our ammo for us.
You’re not alone on the receiving end Daryl.
The bigotry and hatred in academic, political and politically connected educational circles in the cities that justifies this is beyond measure. And in environmental circles, where no one has any professional training that enables them to have a career in the private sector (it’s a receptacle for idiots).
You can replace guns with objections to the stupid prices, that ignored risk, paid for commercial property during the Howard era: to not show ‘confidence in the economy under the Prime Minister’ justified anything done to you.
I could go on but the faux morality is connected to ‘crocodile marketing’, meaning it comes from within the business world (who do you think benefits if food production drops, thereby increasing its price? A book called ‘Rats in the Grain’ only covers about a third of the spectrum). It’s always a good idea to follow the money.
This covers the funding for the disarmament campaign:
http://members.iimetro.com.au/~hubbca/peters.htm
there needs to be a firearms industry dedicated service to prevent further problems because we can not stop these people.
As a Firearms importer and wholesaler ( SH Shooting ) I make two points 1. SIFA only represents the big four importers only. 2. We had a TNT account and let it lapse because of high rates of shipping we asked to re open it and they refused full stop. We also used to use Fastway it was a very good service but they too decided to give firearms the flick. NSC should forget trying to change the mind of TNT as they won’t take on any new accounts anyway, but instead try working with one of the other freight company’s to help them into the market after all what company doesn’t want ten million dollars of turnover a year. This is a great opportunity for a progressive company to come on board.
S.S.A.A …..Stay Silent And Aloof ,with 200,000 members ,which equates to around 15 / 16 million bucks ,the SSAA should show their
members they have a voice ,and use it ., accompanied with action
Jack
Already done the contact of Fred Smith bit also his 2nd in charge and never got a reply they refused to freight Denix replicas as Quote (they can be made to be Real Firearms) then after sending all the appropriate correct info from the manufacturer they still wouldnt do it and meanwhile charged me the freight for the goods not turning up and went back to the statement they cant ship Firearms whilst taking 2-3 months to get a refund after chasing them down for weeks.
This is getting to crisis point, surly there has to be a transport company in Australia that would take it on,
I am quadriplegic target shooter, I ONLY put holes in paper, in benchrest competition I compete at the same level as able bodied, Its is hard enough with our laws and regulations, the bad press and miss information put out by anti gun groups and the greens, that never seems to be publicly challenged by any firearm peak body, except in magazines to shooters. I don’t want to see my/our sport be crippled by transport issues, with all the different state laws, there should be one law Australia wide.
With all the peak shooting bodies, why can’t you all join forces too lobby as one voice for all in this sport, try to lobby Aust post to change its rule of 1m on parcels so they can transport firearms, do the same for ammunition, get your fingers out as peak bodies, look and press for long term alternatives please
Hi Thomas
Good to hear from you. If the peak bodies that existed before we did, did their jobs, then we wouldn’t exist. The need for the NSC simply wouldn’t be there.
However the peak bodies are well meaning people that simply don’t have the skills or purpose that is needed to deal with our political challenges. I’m not saying we’ve got it all, but I’d like to think that we’re at least on the right path. The reasons they won’t join forces with us is partly because they serve other interests. Some have ranges and need to give priority to that, others represent particular parts of the supply chain and need to give priority to those interests.
In the case of TNT, SIFA has made a huge mistake by not looking at options available to it under competition law. We have that background and skillset (purely by chance) and offered our help with no catches yet they didn’t even look at it. So if you were to ask me why are in this mess, my answer is that its possible SIFA is too interested in standing alone than with others. Sad to say, but that’s how I feel.
Anyway we decided to pull back from that matter and see how they fare by themselves. So far we’ve seen them meet with AusPost but the industry is still crying out for help. I know I’m being tough on SIFA but we can only read the situation for what it is. If SIFA wanted to talk with us, we’d put everthing aside and be happy to start again – but we can’t see that happening.
Regards
Neil