SENATOR David Leyonhjelm is extremely passionate about shooting sports and hopes to ignite positive gun regulation reforms during his time in federal parliament.
As president of his local club, the first-term NSW Liberal Democratic Party Senator is a proud owner of numerous pistols, rifles and shotguns.
“My intent is to use my time in the Senate to do what I can for shooters and my sport,” he told a small gathering at Parliament House in Canberra last month, when political supporters met to discuss issues facing recreational gun owners.
“But my real aspiration is to return firearms laws and regulation to the states through reform of the national firearms agreement.”
Gun use and ownership remains a controversial topic in Australia, with recreational shooters frustrated at being stereotyped in reporting that often only portrays their pastime negatively.
A current federal Senate inquiry is looking at the ability of Australian law enforcement authorities to eliminate gun-related violence in the community and is due to report on March 26, but the Senator wants the federal government out of firearm regulation.
Senator Leyonhjelm said the national firearms agreement causes unnecessary additional costs, duplication and time-consuming bureaucracy, and agreed with Victorian Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie’s defence of hunting as a “social practice (which) has social value”, as well as economic, environmental and social benefits.
“Apart from overseeing firearms imports there is no legitimate role for the Commonwealth in firearm regulation or management – to that end I’m willing to work with any of my colleagues to further the interests of shooters,” he said.
Senator Leyonhjelm said using recreational shooters to help farmers control feral pests and animals was “fantastic stuff and it is high time governments recognised it”.
“Most farmers do shoot feral animals, but usually there’s only one of them and they’re quite busy people, so volunteers helping them out - at no cost to the farmer, and often the hunters are even prepared to pay to stay on the property - is an opportunity that’s too good to miss,” he said.
“But governments are still putting regulatory barriers in their path which I think is a huge shame, because they are every bit as legitimate as volunteer fire fighters and the SES.
“They are giving up their own time at their own expense to control damaging environmental pests like wild dogs and foxes, which attack sheep, lambs and calves and so forth.”
Shooters helping out farmers
Western Australian Liberal MP Ian Goodenough has been a competitive shooter since the age of 11 and represented his home state in clay target shooting.
The first term MP said he disliked the negative stereotyping of shooters and attended the event to help create a positive image of his sport and show it as “legitimate”.
Mr Goodenough said the sport can be practiced safely when it’s licensed and operated in a controlled environment. He also praised recreational shooters for helping farmers and other land managers with economic feral pest management.
“Wild dogs and feral foxes are a very big problem in the eastern part of WA and it’s very labour intensive to control these pests,” he said.
“Farmers don’t have all day to go out and shoot, so to have that support from competent shooters certainly helps.”
Field and Game Australia CEO Rod Drew said a University of Queensland study and another similar investigation in Victoria showed that shooters are contributing many millions of dollars to the national economy.
He said the studies also showed shooters provided a huge resource for funds-strapped land managers to tap into - not just farmers but also government agencies.
“Any farmer who lives next door to a national park will tell you they get absolutely inundated with pest animals and they’re very critical of the way the government manages pest animals on their own estate,” he said.
“This is where hunters play a very important role and it’s an underutilised resource.
“There are thousands of professional hunters in Australia and it’s a growing sport and as any wildlife scientist will tell you, the number of pest animals in Australia is exploding.”
Mr Drew said while most politicians understood the role recreational shooters played in the community - especially those from rural constituencies – others needed ongoing education.
“We’re a highly urbanised country and the people in urban areas they don’t really understand what goes on out in the bigger and more remote parts of regional Australia,” he said.
Sporting Shooters Association of Australia CEO Tim Bannister said he attended the Canberra event to help promote the positives of shooting sports as a recreation and activity necessary for the nation’s benefit.
The Association runs a program called “Farmer Assist”, which Mr Bannister likened to an an internet dating service which connects licensed shooters, who’ve passed various ethical and target shooting tests, to farmers needing assistance to control feral pests.
“It’s not just an opportunity for hunting but also to … help farmers out like those farmers in Queensland who are still in drought,” he said.
“They may not have the money or energy to go and get rid of 1000 macropods off their land and stop them from eating the last bit of pasture they may have left for feeding livestock.”
Mr Bannister said during the Senate inquiry one anti-gun activist suggested farmers should not be allowed to own firearms in case they were tempted to put down an animal.
“That’s just ludicrous stuff,” he said.
“This activist’s suggestion was that the farmers buy a stun-gun - which just shows how far removed from reality these people are and distanced from what actually happens at the farmgate. I’m not sure how you’re meant to put an animal down with a stun-gun unless you shoot it 20 or 30 times.
“For many people … if they’re not into it they don’t understand it - just as I don’t understand jumping out of an aeroplane with a parachute.
“But I don’t want to ban people from parachuting - I just want to know that it’s being done safely and properly.”
A rural necessity
At the Senate inquiry’s Sydney hearing last year, Firearm Safety and Training Council general manager Gary Bryant said a firearm was a “necessary adjunct to rural occupations” in respect of dealing with animals humanely and efficiently.
“We know that we cannot keep dropping increasing thousands of tonnes of poison into the environment trying to control feral animals when in fact the firearm is largely underused and underutilised,” he said.
“In the hands of appropriately skilled and trained users … the firearm is a highly useful tool of trade to keep the environment free of feral pests and so on.
“The feral pest problem in some areas of the country has actually decimated industries.”
Mr Bryant also told the inquiry there was a large variation in the estimated number of illicit firearms in the country, put at 260,000 to 6 million. He said too often the estimated numbers were based on anecdotal information rather than factual data.
Gun Control Australia vice-president Roland Browne told the inquiry he was concerned about opening up handgun use for farmers. He said shooters wanted to introduce handguns for the hunting of animals in Australia, which would see the opening up of a significant market for use of handguns “and therefore, inevitably, significant increases in the number of handguns in Australia”.
“We would be vehemently opposed to that,” he said.
“I would like to be satisfied that the issue was investigated and that all other possible alternatives were exhausted. One possible alternative, I imagine, is the bolt stun guns, which are used in abattoirs that could potentially be used by farmers.
“Farmers have managed without being able to carry handguns… and have had to find other ways to deal with those problems.
“It is possible that there is room for exceptions to particular licensing requirements to facilitate or enable farmers with a particular need to have a handgun in those circumstances.”
The National Farmers' Federation legal affairs manager Sarah McKinnon told the inquiry the group supported strong regulation of firearms but believed robust regulation was already in place.
She urged “strong engagement” on any potential changes that would impact farmers who have genuine need to use firearms.
“We are certainly supportive of inquiries into how they (regulations) could be made more effective,” she said.
“If there are any changes under contemplation, we would ask for strong engagement with the farm sector on any proposals because clearly farmers are one of the key groups where there are real and genuine reasons for use of firearms in Australia.
“Changes that are intended to deal with illicit activity can very easily and inadvertently affect farm interests and costs for rural communities.”