The 2026 Commonwealth Games will be held in Victoria, just 20 years after doing the same in 2006.
The 2026 Commonwealth Games will be held in Victoria, just 20 years after doing the same in 2006.However unlike 2006, shooting has not been included.
In this article, we look at why this has happened and what can be done to put pressure on it’s re-inclusion.
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There will be 16 sports, with the usual range that we are used to seeing such as athletics and swimming
We know that shooting wasn’t included in this year’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games, but it is now apparent that shooting isn’t among the sports announced for the 2026 games either.
Shooting was included in the 2006 games, with the Melbourne Gun club, Melbourne International Shooting Club and Wellsford Range all hosting events.
The inclusion of shooting was even announced by the then Labor Minister for sport, Justin Madden at one of those venues.
Justin Madden MP announcing shooting for the 2006 Comm Games at Melbourne Gun Club
Media interviewing Russell Mark
Madden with Russell and Laryn Mark
So what’s changed that would cause one Labor Government to include shooting, and another Labor Government to leave it out?
The difference is that the state’s premier is Daniel Andrews.
Andrews is hard core socialist and known for his disregard for the shooting sports alongside his police minister, Lisa Neville.
We wrote to Andrews and also to Commonwealth Games Australia, asking why shooting was dropped.
While Andrews hasn’t yet responded, Commonwealth Games Australia advised us that:
- A number of other sports, including shooting, are listed as “core sports” which may be included later on;
- The Victorian Government gets a say in what sports are and are not included;
- There will be further sports added to the program by the end of Phase 2 – which delays the announcement until after this year’s Victorian state election; and
- We should speak with Shooting Australia, which organises the shooting events for the Commonwealth Games and is a member of Commonwealth Games Australia.
However the response also said that discussions on ‘phase 2’ are “strictly confidential”, which means Shooting Australia will not be able to tell us, even if they knew.
Why this matters
With the announcement of what other sports may or may not be included being held off until after the election, we cannot afford to let the government exclude shooting.
That’s why we’ll be taking this into account as we approach this year’s Victorian State Election.
In fact, with a federal election fast approaching we’ve decided that like WA, shooters in Victoria need to send a message to the Andrews Labor Government in every Victorian electorate, with one exception.
We’ll cover that in our article on the federal election which you can see by clicking here.
What’s going to change afterthe state election?? This is just one reason to vote against state Labour – but they’ve given us so many others that it should be a non-question anyway.
If shooting was excluded from the Birmingham Games and will be excluded from the Melbourne Games – why does Shooting Australia remain a member of Commonwealth Games Australia?
… because it would then shut out shooters in Australia for good. I think they’re better off staying in the tent to at least try to get shooting back on the map. In fact I know they’re making representations on this now. Don’t forget, they also send teams to the Olympics so it’s important that the signals they send are seen in the right light.
Australia, despite our gun legeslation, is particularly tallented in shooting. Our Target Rifle team dominated in NZ, our F Class team won Gold at the World Championships in Canada in 2017 with the FTR team taking silver. Our Commonwealth Games performances in Shotgun and Target rifle have been pretty good for a long time. Can’t say as I think much of Shooting Australia, they did zero to help us in the 2017 F class world championships but when we came back with the gold and silver, all of a sudden they are in charge for the 2021 selection process. Unfortunately 2021 is a covid casualty.
Gotta ditch scumbag Andrews. I’ll always vote a pro-shooting party, and that’s certainly not Labor or the Greens. Hell I don’t trust the Liberals or Nationals either….but choose someone other than the former 2 names!
Don’t pick the latter names either. Voting is easier, and more powerful, if you put the sitting member last (if you don’t like them or their party), you overthrow the apple cart they rely on for their predictions:
Example: the M2 motorway in Sydney’s north west. The locals didn’t want it and protested vehemently against it. But as the electorate would always vote for that party, so what?
Our political system is flawed and broken when independents hold the power. Jason Woods in Vic is a classic example. he did a deal, which saw the importation of lion trophies or products banned from Australia. Non of them can be trusted, Vote for those that support us in name and policy.
It is quite clear that this is just another step in the disarming of the population. They will say there is no sports to compete in so why do you need firearms.
dont need to ban the sport. in cal usa they banned lead bullets.