Queensland State Election: Remember the gun shop closures

SHOOTERS in Queensland will be going to the polls on October 31, although ‘early voting’ is open now.

The NSC has this voting advice for shooters in Queensland, as part of our commitment to help shooters at every state, territory and federal election to work out who is safe to vote for. 

Parties to choose from

Queenslanders are a bit more fortunate than other states in that they can vote for pro-shooting parties in every seat. Katter’s Australia Party and One Nation are contesting the election, with the latter contesting every seat.

While ON’s position on guns has waivered over the years and it has the unhelpful Mr Latham in NSW Parliament, we have opted to support KAP first, ON second and then the rest – with the Greens last. 

Remember the gun shop closures

A key reason we decided to push Labor and the LNP down the ticket has been driven by the decision of the Queensland Government to shut down our gun shops on the basis of the (now revealed) fake National Cabinet decision. It was a politically motivated move designed to hurt gun shops, and so we see this response as our way of trying to make sure they don’t play that game again.

While the LNP was more supportive – and you would expect an opposition to be – we would want to see the LNP do more for shooters, such as release a specific and solid pro-shooting policy, before we backed them.  That said, our voting advice does provide support for them in some seats, although not for their Leader (who did not respond and whose Labor opponent wants to work with the shooting community and facilitate more effective consultations with the regulator).

As you will see below, other issues we raised with the major parties include the need to reduce the high costs of PTAs, great access to firearms for the security industry and ability of farmers to use handguns for primary production, and putting a red pen through the use of the term ‘weapons’ in their firearms legislation. There are obviously many other issues of concern to shooters, but these are the ones we think can be taken care of by the majors without too much effort.

NSC voting advice

The NSC has released it’s voting advice which can be viewed on this page (below), or downloaded by clicking here (3 pages – PDF) – or clicking on one of the pages.  

It was based on ‘ratings’ we developed on what we knew about each candidate, their responses to surveys we sent out last month, and with advice from our good friends, the Shooters Union Australia who we would specifically like to thank.

Early voting has started

Remember to follow the instructions when you vote to make sure your vote counts! – and always put the Greens last.

Early voting has already started, so click here if you need advice on where to vote, or here for a full list of your local candidates are or here to check your enrolment details.

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