Qld Weapons Licensing New Inspector intervenes in election campaign
Queensland Police Service’s Weapons Licensing Branch has taken the unusual position of leaping out onto ABC News during an election campaign to promote the Queensland Labor Government’s policy of confiscating pistols from farmers in remote and regional areas.
Inspector Adam Guild has a bag of great quotes that avoid some huge, inconvenient facts. When you consider all the facts, his quoted statements are misleading. But that’s OK, because the Police would never interfere in an election campaign. Would they? Crime and Corruption Commission, are you awake?
Fact #1: The law and animal welfare guidelines haven’t changed
From ABC News:
Inspector Guild told the Queensland Country Hour that […] changes to animal welfare guidelines, have shown long arms were a preferable means of euthanasing livestock.
This is a top-quality misleading statement from Inspector Guild, because we have the Weapons Licensing briefing document that says no animal welfare guidelines have changed:
Indeed, animal welfare guidelines have been recently updated to put it beyond doubt that pistols are OK for euthenising animals. What are those ‘issues’ in you quote? Are they political pressure from Queensland Labor?
Fact #2: Weapons Licensing and Labor worked to persecute farmers
From ABC News:
“Each application is assessed on its merits,” Inspector Guild said.
Weapons Licensing prepared a beautiful document that outlined their plans to implicitly threaten farmers that if they didn’t withdraw applications and renewals, they may not get other licenses renewed. It’s corroborated by actual farmers who were threatened on the phone. Here’s the best bits:
Weapons Licensing are shackled to the Qld Labor election campaign
This is a remarkable press manoeuvre from Qld Weapons Licensing. But it makes perfect sense, because Queensland’s Police Commissioner is on record backing Labor’s plans to ban lever-action shotguns over five rounds, even though they’ve been safely used in Australia for over a century.
A fish rots from the head. Don’t tolerate it.
Number all the boxes. Put Labor Last.