The Shooters' Party

TSP’s Web site now securely accepts donations and annual membership electronically via PayPal. Payments by credit card, as well as by direct credit to the Shooters’ Party are just a few clicks away.

Last year your Shooters Party representatives, Robert Brown and I, were successful in having the Firearms Amendment Bill 2008 passed into law by the NSW Parliament. The Bill made over 30 amendments to the original legislation removing several inequities and bureaucratic hurdles including the 28 day waiting periods for licence renewals and subsequent permits to acquire.  In my opinion, one of the best changes we were able to achieve was streamlining the opportunity for unlicensed persons to shoot on ranges under supervision removing the bureaucratic processes and lengthy delays incorporated in the original legislation.

Robert Brown and Roy Smith are working on the Shooter’s Party parliamentary program for 2009 and to start with they have underway a review of the Feral Animal and Game Control Act which is expected to result in significant benefits for hunting and hunters in NSW. In the second half of the year their plan is to introduce another Bill to further improve state firearms legislation and that’s where they need your help.

Suggestions are being sought from shooters for changes that will benefit shooters and our sport. The current numbers in Parliament give the Shooters Party realistic opportunities to make meaningful and sensible changes to the firearms legislation so input is being sought from shooters to identify areas and issues of concern that should be targeted.

This is a good chance to check and confirm the records held in relation to shooters’ firearms and to have any errors or omissions rectified.

But having said that, it is the party’s opinion that registration of long arms serves no useful purpose and is a waste of time and money. Shooters’ experiences would be appreciated in regards to the accuracy of the data held by Firearms Registry in respect of their firearms.

Feedback on these issues will be important in helping your representatives to develop further legislation, so please take a couple of minutes to complete the poll and leave your comments or suggestions in the forum topic.

It has been decided that free Web e-mail addresses will be reviewed prior to acceptance or rejection as part of the registration process.

For verified party members, registration will automatically be approved. For all other applicants approval will require substantiation of necessity.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has revealed that growing up on a farm left him with a love of horse riding and clay target shooting.

“I grew up on a farm where there were guns around. I like shooting when I get a chance to go out and do sporting clays and I like riding a horse,“ he told the Fairfax Radio Network.

The prime minister said while he had not done any shooting in recent years and he was not good at it, he had shot sporting clays in the past.

“I haven’t done it (sporting clays) for a couple of years but I used to be a patron of one of the shooting clubs in my electorate,“ Mr Rudd revealed.

It is the policy of the Shooter’s Party that registration on this site requires an ISP provided e-mail address.

Any members who do not have specific approval to use a free e-mail address will be deleted from the system at end of business—1700hr AEST—19 September 2008.

To avoid any inconvenience, please login and update your e-mail address.

With the change in Ministers in both the Police and Sport and Recreation portfolios, we are already working to ensure that the first round of the 2008-09 MACOSC grants are approved within a couple of weeks.

The funding is granted on a financial year basis.

There are nearly 40 clubs from around the State in line for funding of about $540,000, to meet compliance requirements and safety upgrades for their ranges and clubs. I would expect this would be the bulk of funding for this financial year, with only a small amount of money available for distribution early in 2009. This follows the $450,000 in grants to more than 40 clubs for the 07-08 financial year.

By any measure, the Shooters’ Party has been very successful in convincing the Government to provide this ongoing funding to clubs.

I should emphasise the former Treasurer, Michael Costa was a supporter of our campaign for extra funding for shooting clubs and I am sorry to see him leave the job. Club officials needing details on how to apply for MACOSC funding should contact .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8CfK0wcqYw

For those who already have a gravatar, this site supports their use. For everyone else a gravatar is a “universal” avatar served by gravatar.com. If you want to learn more or to sign up for your own gravatar, check out http://en.gravatar.com/ .

After one and a half years, the shortcomings of the original site have reached critical mass. So, we have moved to address the numerous user complaints about the old forum system by retiring it and deploying a commercially-licensed, unified content management system.

One major benefit of moving to a new platform is the restructuring of the site around a portal page. You will be able to access sites, blogs and forums related to federal, state and branch issues.

We believe the provision of Web based branch sites will strengthen the party by providing an electronic meeting place to discuss branch and special issues irrespective of geography.