{"id":295400,"date":"2021-03-09T12:19:18","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T02:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=295400"},"modified":"2021-03-09T15:53:55","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T05:53:55","slug":"shooters-lobby-slams-audit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/03\/09\/shooters-lobby-slams-audit\/","title":{"rendered":"Shooters Lobby Slams Audit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Member for Hinchinbrook Nick Dametto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

March 9, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Shooters Union Australia claims policy changes in Queensland’s Weapons Licensing Branch has led to legitimate firearms owners having their weapons seized or their licences cancelled.<\/p>\n

The pro-shooting lobby group says it has spent nearly $10,000 in legal fights on behalf of it members about licensing issues.<\/p>\n

On February 25, Katter’s Australian Party member for Hinchinbrook Nick Dametto demanded an explanation for firearms licensing delays, cancellations and seizures in a Question on Notice in State Parliament. <\/p>\n

A reply from Police Minister Mark Ryan is due by March 29.<\/p>\n

Shooters Union Australia president Graham Park said the current situation was “completely unprecedented”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt all stems from a deeply flawed audit into Weapons Licensing, and in particular the auditors essentially not understanding what they were looking at and deciding, for some inexplicable reason, that law-abiding firearms users were the issue and not the incredibly outdated and not-fit-for-purpose systems in the State\u2019s firearms registry,” Mr Park said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve supported more than a dozen applications to the Queensland Civil Administration Tribunal (QCAT), covering everything from people having licences taken off them for speeding offences from decades ago, to primary producers who the Weapons Licensing Branch deemed didn\u2019t earn enough as a farmer to keep their licence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a lot of cases, the situation is sorted out amicably before the QCAT hearing, but a number of cases have gone all the way with rulings in the shooter\u2019s favour.”<\/p>\n

Mr Park said the situation now was simply chewing up vast sums of taxpayers’ money and administrative resources for no reason other than political appearances.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery dollar wasted by police justifying a pointless QCAT case because someone got busted smoking a marijuana joint in 1998 is a dollar that\u2019s not being used to ensure frontline police and emergency services personnel have the equipment and resources they need to fight real and serious crimes like assault or robbery,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes it worse is this problem could literally go away today if Weapons Licensing stopped actively looking for reasons to deny licences to people, and went back to the way things were before the audit when everything was working more or less satisfactorily.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine if the Department of Transport decided to refuse you a driver\u2019s licence because of a decades old misdemeanour, or because you had dodgy mates, or because they decided you didn\u2019t live far enough from your work to need a car \u2013 that\u2019s pretty much exactly what happens to law-abiding shooters all the time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Shooters Union Australia claims policy changes in Queensland’s Weapons Licensing Branch has led to legitimate firearms owners having their weapons seized or their licences cancelled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":295402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,24],"tags":[1132],"yoast_head":"\nShooters Lobby Slams Audit - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Shooters Union Australia claims policy changes in Queensland's Weapons Licensing Branch has led to legitimate firearms owners having their weapons seized or their licences cancelled.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/03\/09\/shooters-lobby-slams-audit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shooters Lobby Slams Audit - 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