15/12/2025
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JOINT STATEMENT
Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and WA
Licensed Status Exposes System Failure, Not a Need for Knee-Jerk Gun Laws
The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party (SFF) says the response to the recent violent extremist attack must focus on system failure, not scapegoating lawful firearm owners to cover government inaction.
Yes, the offender was licensed — and that makes the failure more serious, not less.
Authorities had visibility. They had powers to monitor, suspend or revoke licences. Those powers were not acted on as extremist behaviour escalated.
Licensing did not cause this attack. Extremism did.
This was not a gap in the law — it was a gap in intervention.
“This attack was driven by extremist ideology, not by fi****ms licensing,” said Victorian SFF MLC Jeff Bourman. “When radicalisation emerges, authorities must intervene early. Ignoring warning signs and blaming the law after the fact is not public safety.”
Existing fi****ms laws already allow authorities to act when warning signs emerge. If those mechanisms had been used, this incident may have been prevented. The problem was not permission — it was inaction.
“This was not a gap in Australia’s fi****ms laws,” said NSW SFF MLC Robert Borsak. “The powers already exist. The failure was that they were not used.”
Attempts to pivot toward firearm caps, category restrictions or Western Australia-style administrative crackdowns distract from the real issue. This was a radicalisation and security failure, not a numbers problem.
“Western Australia-style laws punish compliance without addressing violent extremism,” said NSW SFF MLC Mark Banasiak. “They may look tough, but they won’t prevent attacks.”
Australia already has some of the strictest fi****ms laws in the world. Further punishing compliant, licensed firearm owners will not fix failures in intelligence, early intervention or enforcement.
“Lawful firearm owners should not be scapegoated to cover government failure,” said Tasmanian SFF MLA Carlo Di Falco. “Punishing people who followed the law does nothing to improve public safety.”
The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party supports strong action against violent extremism, proper use of existing powers, and accountability where authorities failed to act. We do not support symbolic lawmaking designed to look tough while avoiding hard questions.
