Sykes takes bullets for shooters
Nationals Spokesperson for Police, Bill Sykes had to withstand a full blooded attack by Labor MPs in Parliament this week when he moved a motion to simplify the renewal of firearms licences.
Dr Sykes and The Nationals supported the majority of the proposed changes to the Firearms Act but he also wanted to put an end to the excessive paperwork and long delays involved with renewing existing firearms licences.
Dr Sykes said, “The Labor Party attached was symptomatic of their “not invented here” syndrome ie. because they didn’t think of the idea, they rejected it.
“Shooters and firearms collectors have repeatedly complained about the paper work and delays in renewing licences, one simple solution is to accept a system similar to driver’s licences, whereby the licence is automatically renewed upon payment of a fee and subject to there being no disqualification due to a violation of licence conditions.
“Labor MPs claim that my amendment was from “left field” and that the idea had not been raised with them directly. This is untrue, shooting organisations have stated that they have raised the issue repeatedly via the Government’s Firearms Consultative Committee and with MPs directly as recently as August 2007.
“There is also doubt about Labor MPs additional claim that such an approach would be inconsistent with the National Firearms Agreement.
“On a positive note, the Labor Government acknowledges the gross inefficiency of the Licensing Services Division (LSD) and is currently conducting an overhaul of it – something which The Nationals and firearms owners have been demanding for several years.
“Let’s hope that this results in a substantial improvement in LSD efficiency.
“In the meantime I will continue to work towards streamlining of the licences renewal process and the addressing of other inefficiencies and anomalies”, Dr Sykes concluded.
Dr Sykes and The Nationals supported the majority of the proposed changes to the Firearms Act but he also wanted to put an end to the excessive paperwork and long delays involved with renewing existing firearms licences.
Dr Sykes said, “The Labor Party attached was symptomatic of their “not invented here” syndrome ie. because they didn’t think of the idea, they rejected it.
“Shooters and firearms collectors have repeatedly complained about the paper work and delays in renewing licences, one simple solution is to accept a system similar to driver’s licences, whereby the licence is automatically renewed upon payment of a fee and subject to there being no disqualification due to a violation of licence conditions.
“Labor MPs claim that my amendment was from “left field” and that the idea had not been raised with them directly. This is untrue, shooting organisations have stated that they have raised the issue repeatedly via the Government’s Firearms Consultative Committee and with MPs directly as recently as August 2007.
“There is also doubt about Labor MPs additional claim that such an approach would be inconsistent with the National Firearms Agreement.
“On a positive note, the Labor Government acknowledges the gross inefficiency of the Licensing Services Division (LSD) and is currently conducting an overhaul of it – something which The Nationals and firearms owners have been demanding for several years.
“Let’s hope that this results in a substantial improvement in LSD efficiency.
“In the meantime I will continue to work towards streamlining of the licences renewal process and the addressing of other inefficiencies and anomalies”, Dr Sykes concluded.
Powered by ScribeFire.
posted by Greg Naylor at
11:04 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home