Thursday, 13 August was a significant day in Parliament for Victoria’s shooters and hunters, bookended by the passage of two major pieces of legislation.
In the morning, the Outdoor Recreation Victoria Bill passed Parliament. SSAA Victoria welcomed the Government delivering this important reform and its recognition of hunting, fishing and other outdoor recreation within government. We were pleased to have contributed to the conversation along the way.
Later that afternoon, the Firearms Amendment Bill also passed Parliament.
We fought hard against the citizenship and AusCheck requirements and made our case across Parliament. On those issues, we lost the battle – but nobody lost any rights on Thursday.
Neither requirement commenced with the passage of the Bill. The regulations needed to make the citizenship and AusCheck provisions operational are not expected until at least 2028.
That gives us at least two years to continue fighting to protect the thousands of law-abiding shooters who could be affected by the citizenship requirement and to ensure any AusCheck system provides genuine natural justice without simply imposing additional costs on licence holders.
The legislation has passed, but the fight is far from over.
We lost the battle. We’re still fighting the war.