NSC’s WA voting guide

WESTERN AUSTRALIA has its state election on Saturday 13 March.
It’s the best chance shooters in WA have to beat the nation’s worst gun laws – and you’ll be able to vote early or put in a postal vote if you wish to.

Western Australian shooters need help!

The Western Australian election offers almost nothing for shooters. WA is where shooters suffer the most. In 2020, they, along with shooters in Victoria and Queensland, suffered gun shop closures, and saw a raft of guns reclassified.

The NSC ran several legal actions on these which were successful, but nowhere near enough to change the law.

Here are some of the issue that WA shooters face:

• WA does not have permits-to-acquire firearms. Instead, WA shooters must licence firearms after purchase, and even then, renew those licences every year with no guarantee the regulator will approve them. Shooters in other states only need a permit prior to buying a firearm, which is a once only process;
  
• WA does not have five-year licences as do shooters in other states. Instead, shooters must renew every year, which is grossly inefficient and unfair;
  
• WA’s licensing and renewal costs are much higher than other states. WA charges $192 to register (licence) every firearm (equivalent to ‘permit to acquire’ in other states);
  
• WA shooters also need to get a ‘serviceability certificate’ before they can licence a firearm. Again, this requirement does not exist in other states;
  
• The WA registry has a “Very Powerful Firearms” policy which restricts which long range firearms and calibres shooters can own.

WA has the worst gun laws and why shooters there need the strongest voice. The NSC will provide that for you, but we need you to make sure your vote is not wasted on anti-gun politicians.

Who you can vote for

Labor

Enough said. This party is out to ruin shooting: there are no seats where we recommend you vote Labor (or the Greens).

You cannot afford to let Labor gain control of the WA upper house, because that will be a disaster for WA shooters.

Coalition

Despite our efforts, neither the Liberals nor the Nationals are willing to support firearm policies of any use. The Liberal policy platform shows it is chasing the Green vote, so supporting them is wasted.

Minor parties

GAP, LDP, ON: We recommend shooters vote for the Liberal Democrats, Great Australian Party or One Nation (in that order) where possible.

This is based on our many discussions with them, their track records, and their policies which we believe will help shooters the most.

If you can’t find a GAP, LDP or ON candidate to vote for, then we recommend you look towards the Nationals where they are available. We have not included the SFFP in our recommendations.

The main reason is that SFFP’s preference will benefit Labor – despite the way Labor treats shooters. Labor is paying SFFP back with preferences in two upper house seats – which you may have read in recent media articles (such as this article from the ABC) – with NO benefit for shooters.

In fact, the SFFP is even preferencing a candidate in one of the upper house seats whose website says he had “a life of incarceration, drugs, addiction and crime”, before other pro-gun parties and the majors.

Still stuck?

If you don’t have any pro-gun parties to vote for then all we can suggest is to put the coalition ahead of Labor, and the Greens last. That’s because we believe shooters can’t afford to have another term of the McGowan Government.

How to vote

You will get two ballot papers. One is for the lower house (your local area). You will need to number every box – just make sure you put the Greens last.

The other, larger one, is for the upper house. You can vote ‘above the line’ by putting a 1 in the box against the party of your choice (we suggest Liberal Democrats, Great Australian Party or One Nation).

Or you can vote ‘below the line’ but you will then need to number EVERY box for your vote to be valid.

You can get more information on the voting process from the WA Electoral Commission’s website using the links below:

• Where to vote
• How to get a postal vote
• Early voting
• Where to vote on 13 March

Going forward

The NSC is providing voting advice at every state, territory and federal election. Last year we helped shooters in the Northern Territory, ACT and Queensland.

Next year, we’ll be able to help shooters in South Australia and Victoria, with the other states to follow afterwards -plus of course, the next federal election which is due in 2022.

That’s why you should follow the NSC. Hop onto our email list by clicking here for all the updates.

Or better still, hop on board as a member where we run legal actions from our membership fees and donations!

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