The Sporting Shooters Association (SSAA) says proposed changes to NSW electoral funding laws are undemocratic and un-Australian, and would damage the organisation's efforts to represent its members.
"The changes are seen as a blatant attempt to silence our members," SSAA (NSW) president Paul McNabb told a select committee inquiry into the Electoral Funding, Expenditure and Disclosure Bill 2011.
The bill would ban organisations like the SSAA from making donations to politicians and political parties, but Mr McNabb and SSAA (NSW) executive director Diana Melham told the committee that its members gave it a mandate to make financial contributions to political parties that supported the shooting sports.
Before the last NSW election, SSAA (NSW) had donated $300,000 to the Shooters and Fishers Party, plus provided in-kind support, and the Sydney branch had provided an additional $100,000.
Mr McNabb said the SSAA was not only a voice for its individual members but a means of putting their words into action.
Preventing the SSAA from making political donations would curtail its ability to represent its members and advocate on their behalf.
Mr McNabb told the hearing that the likelihood of SSAA members being able to afford to donate money directly to political campaigns was 'nonexistent', sighting the fact that members already have numerous expenses incurred during participation in the shooting sports.
"Our organisation is unashamedly supportive of sporting shooters, and our members expect and deserve nothing less than our best efforts to achieve positive outcomes on their behalf," Ms Melham said.
"Denying organisations such as the SSAA the opportunity to effectively advance the interests of our members through political activity would, in our view, constitute an unacceptable restriction on one of the freedoms enjoyed by all Australians."
The bill has been passed by the NSW lower house but is on hold while the select committee looks into it.
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