Ridge Group

Farmer warns walkers of wild pigs

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:33:18 +1800

A MAPLETON man who shot and killed a wild pig on his hinterland property says he is worried there are more out there and people could be in danger.

Adam McCosker believes the feral animal came from the nearby Mapleton Forest Reserve which is popular with bushwalkers.

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The boar, which Mr McCosker estimated to be 18 months old, had been terrorising his property for two weeks before he killed it legally and humanely on Christmas Day.

The 37-year-old Mr McCosker grew up around Mapleton National Park and said he had never seen a wild pig there before.

"He was a complete nutter. I wasn't letting the kids go outside for those two weeks on the off chance he was out there," Mr McCosker said.

"I wouldn't want to meet him out in the bush."

The pig attacked one of Mr McCosker's domestic boars after tearing down a fence.

"He got in with my boar and cut him up even though he was bigger. He had no tusks to defend himself."

Mr McCosker said there were potentially more wild pigs out there and feared for the safety of bushwalkers if they came across one.

The park has several popular walks, a bike trail and camping areas.

"If someone scares a pig, they will go straight through them," he said. "You could imagine what an inch-and-a-half of tusk would do charging at you like that."

Feral pigs are recognised by Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management as one of Australia's most destructive environmental and agricultural pests.

The department's website says they are found in many national parks but does not mention the Mapleton Forest.

In many parts of the country, pigs carry diseases such as Murray Valley encephalitis and Ross River fever.

DERM said wild pigs were dangerous and people should stay well back if they encountered one.

Have Fun Mountain Bike Tours owner John Searston, who has a permit to run tours through the park, said he had not seen a wild pig there in five years.

"I've never even seen pig droppings," he said.

"I've seen foxes, giant goannas, snakes, kangaroos, wallabies but never a pig.

"They could hear a bike or motorcycle coming a mile away."

Feral pig facts

The feral pig has coarse hair and a solid build.
A male pig can weigh up to 175kg, a female 110kg
If the pig is a colour apart from black, it is most likely a cross-breed with domestic stock.
The feral pig has smaller and narrower hindquarters than domestic breeds.
Feral pigs are known to eat young lambs, removing up to 40% of livestock in some areas. This costs the sheep industry millions of dollars a year.
Feral pigs breed throughout the year in favourable conditions, peaking between May and October.

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/ ... wild-pigs-catch-mapleton/

Duck hunt 'no solution' for NSW rice farmers

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:52:42 +1800

New South Wales authorities have dismissed the value of a duck hunting season to remedy the Riverina region's problems with the waterbirds.

The 2010 floods have brought perfect breeding conditions and ducks have swooped on rice paddies in the Murray Valley to decimate farmers' crops.

The Victorian Government has announced a full duck shooting season this year.

But agronomist John Fowler, from the state's Department of Primary Industries, says it would not help in NSW.

The department says game bird populations have reached their highest numbers since the 1980s.

Mr Fowler says some farmers have re-planted three times, before abandoning their crop.

"It would be helpful but in the end I think the numbers are too large to make any serious impact," Mr Fowler said.

"I had one grower ring me at one time and say his estimate was that he had 8,000 ducks on his crops. There's just no way you could shoot or scare that number.

Riverina rice farmers are blaming ducks for decimating their summer crops, but Mr Fowler says black tailed or native water hens are also a problem.

"They graze at it quite young and, in fact, they don't leave anything behind," he said.

"They sort of graze through in a line, in front of them is rice and behind them is bare water."

The final damage bill across the Murray Valley is yet to be calculated.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-06 ... rmers/3761488?section=nsw

Prosecute illegal Green Island turtle hunters, says elder

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 10:53:14 +1800

TOURISM operators and traditional owners have called for an end to the slaughter of endangered marine life at Green Island, following a recent spate of turtle killings by hunters.

Tourism operators and tourists have reported at least 14 turtle killings in the past month.

It is feared the suspected overkill will wipe out the area’s turtle population within months.

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It comes amid calls by Guru-Gulu Gungandji Aboriginal elder Robert Sands to prosecute "so-called" traditional hunters and condemning the practice at the island.

He said the traditional land owners were working towards establishing strict permits for those wishing to hunt in the area.

Pictures have emerged of motorised boats hunting within the green zone around Green Island on Monday.

The boats are seen hunting in plain sight of tourists, within the surf life saving flags, just 3-4m to from shore.

Other pictures taken in July, show boats hunting among visitors aboard glass-bottom tour boats around the island.

Big Cat Green Island Reef Cruises tourism operator Steve Davies feared the overkill would wipe out the island’s next generation of turtles within months.

"It’s their nesting season at the moment so the ones being killed are likely carrying eggs," he said.

He said tourists were astonished by the hunting.

But the traditional elders said traditional hunting should not occur at the island as it was only ever used as a ceremonial site.

State Environment Minister Vicky Darling said Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service was working with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to investigate the hunting reports.

She said traditional owners had the right to hunt turtles under Commonwealth legislation.

"While that right exists I know that most traditional owners conduct this hunting discreetly so it is not confronting to tourists or other members of the community," she said.

http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2011/12/08/195265_local-news.html

ACT Govt hunting rabbits with dogs

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 10:47:12 +1800

Trained detection dogs will be used to flush out rabbits and hares in the Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary so the pests can then be shot or gassed.

The ACT Government is aiming to make the sanctuary free of feral animals. It has already removed all foxes and cats through poisoning.

Territory and Municipal Services says about 80 per cent of the rabbit and hare population has been removed from the sanctuary through shooting, poisoning or gassing. But small pockets remain.

Mulligans Flat Board of Management chairman Professor Tony Peacock said the remaining rabbits and hares had to be removed ahead of the proposed release of the Eastern Bettong to the sanctuary next autumn.

The rabbits’ grazing resulted in the loss of vegetation and their burrows caused erosion.

But Professor Peacock acknowledged it was still difficult to remove the animals.

‘‘No one enjoys killing animals but in this case you can have the rabbits and hares or you can have the bettongs,’’ he said.

Bettongs, a small rat-like native marsupial, were once common in the Canberra region but had been extinct on the Australian mainland for about 80 years, now confined to Tasmania.

Professor Peacock said bettongs were being bred at Tidbinbilla for release into Mulligans Flat while others would be brought in from Tasmania.

The bettongs foraged in the vegetation and encouraged the growth of fungi which they ate. Rabbits and hares competed for that same vegetation.

The Sydney-based dogs and their handler will be in Canberra next week when the sanctuary will be closed to the public from Monday to Friday to allow the removal of the rabbits and hares.

Professor Peacock said the dogs would flush out the rabbits, which would be either shot or captured and gassed. They would not be killed by the dogs.

“The trained detection dogs have been used very successfully on Macquarie Island which has a large penguin population. The dogs are able to detect rabbits and hares without causing harm to native wildlife. The dogs are used to locate warrens and flush out hares as well as any above ground rabbits,’’ he said.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/ ... ts-with-dogs/2386318.aspx

Bay farmers may face pig problems

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:05:15 +1800

THERE is evidence that farmers in the Hervey Bay district may be facing a wild pig invasion after a land owner trapped 17 pigs in a single day over the weekend.

Mr Warren Drury's sister, Bev Cornwell, said her brother - who had a property on the Dundowran-Burrum Heads Rd, saw evidence of wild pigs digging on his property and decided to act.

"About a fortnight ago, he caught a boar in the trap but had also seen other pigs around so he knew there were more living on his property," Mrs Cornwell said.

"Over several weeks he enticed the pigs back with grain left in the unset trap.

"Last Sunday, when he went to check, he had trapped two adults and 17 piglets, a big haul.

"He had originally thought that the two adults were sows but it turned out that one was another boar so there must be at least another sow up there some-where.

"These animals are pests, in the same category as foxes, wild dogs, ferrel cats and rabbits and cause enormous damage to the environment and our native wildlife."

The Boar Facts

Wild boars live in groups called sounders that contain about 20 animals.
Sows will give birth to a litter of 4-6 piglets.
Boars are the only hoofed animals known to dig burrows,
The hair of the boar was often used for toothbrushes until the invention of synthetic materials in the 1930s.

http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.a ... -pig-problems-hervey-bay/

Conservation shouldn’t be a popularity contest

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:26:12 +1800

Even Australia’s most iconic, charismatic species are in danger of extinction. Species such as the cassowary, Tasmanian devil and koala all enjoy significant community support and relatively generous funding and yet find themselves at risk.

And if our most popular species are in danger of extinction, what will become of our unpopular species?

For species that are feared, disliked or even hated, conservation presents further challenges. Negative community attitudes show up as opposition to conservation efforts and to legislated protection. Unpopular species may even be deliberately harassed, harmed or killed, or have their habitat destroyed.

This is the case for flying foxes, particularly in rural NSW and Queensland, where tolerance for the animals has been traditionally low.

Flying foxes are disliked because they occasionally feed on fruit crops when native food supplies are short. They can also be noisy neighbours when roosting near residential areas.

They are feared because they can harbour lyssavirus and Hendra virus, even though the risk to humans is extremely low.

Communities' fear and hatred has been fanned in past decades by the media and conservative politicians, both in and out of parliament.

When referring to flying foxes, politicians and media commentators have used inflammatory language such as “killer bats”, “horrible stinking vermin”, and “disease-ridden pests”.

Commentators claim that flying fox populations are “exploding” or “in plague proportions”. Residents living next to bat colonies have been said to live in “bat hell”; to be “terrorised”, “under siege” or in a state of “war”.

Rarely do commentators focus on, or even mention, the crucial ecological role (pollination and seed dispersal) played by these animals, their uniqueness as flying mammals, their intriguing adaptation to hanging upside down, their complex social interactions, their intelligence and their pretty faces.

The recent outbreaks of Hendra virus in Queensland and NSW have deepened the human-animal conflict even further. The outbreaks have encouraged more vilification of the animals and more calls for them to be culled.

Governments have been slow – and in the case of Queensland, still unwilling – to list flying foxes as threatened species. This is despite evidence that two species declined by approximately 30% in ten years and that they suffer from habitat destruction and other threats from humans.

This reluctance may be due to the political implications of protecting deeply unpopular species in electorates with a lot of rural constituents.

A species' conservation status (common, vulnerable or endangered) affects funding for data collection and conservation strategies. It also sets the level of penalties applicable for illegally harming or killing the species.

As such, it is essential that such status be accurate and based on scientific evidence, not on a species’ popularity or on political considerations.

Even after being listed as threatened species, the spectacled and grey headed flying foxes could still be legally shot by orchardists. Their camps can still be harassed and relocated.

Shooting threatened species and deliberate destruction of their habitat is a rather unusual way to deal with threatened species. It would be unthinkable if it was any other species.

Laws for the protection of flying foxes have often been weakly enforced, or not at all. As a result, large amounts of illegal electrocution, shooting and harassment of camps have been allowed to go on unpunished.

Permit and license conditions have been weakly monitored, and when breached, governments have rarely been willing to prosecute. The few legal cases that have attempted to enforce the law for the protection of flying foxes have mostly been initiated by private citizens, not government conservation agencies.

So what can be done to protect unpopular species such as flying foxes? The answer lies with a multi-prong approach.

There must be zero tolerance for the illegal killing or harassing of flying foxes. Turning a blind eye simply fosters further illegal activities.

Strategic and proactive education programs should start telling positive stories about much-maligned species such as bats. People are more likely to protect animals they know and like.

In my experience as a wildlife carer, most people who claim to hate bats have never seen one close and know little about them.

Governments must base decisions about threatened species management on scientific evidence, not political imperatives.

The most difficult goal to achieve is fostering an understanding that humans and wildlife share the same planet, whether we like it or not.

Human-wildlife conflicts occur all over the world, from tigers killing people in remote villages, elephants trampling crops, wolves killing lambs, pigeons defecating over monuments and seals feeding on aquacultured fish. Culling animals in these circumstances cannot be a sustainable solution.

Unless these four elements are in place, it is likely that flying foxes will come under increasingly heavy attack each time a Hendra outbreak occurs. This could turn into uncontrollable killings with grave welfare and conservation outcomes.

There is hope though. If crocodiles can be viewed as an iconic, marketable species and a tourist attraction in northern Australia, despite the clear danger they pose, the same should surely be possible for flying foxes.

http://theconversation.edu.au/conserv ... a-popularity-contest-3529

Rangers hunt elusive crocodile in suburban creek

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:19:24 +1800

Darwin wildlife rangers say they will try again today to catch a two-metre crocodile that was seen in a popular suburban creek yesterday.

Rangers spent the night spotlighting Rapid Creek in the city's northern suburbs hoping to remove the crocodile before it causes any problems.

Ranger Tom Nichols says they usually have a trap set there but someone vandalised it last week.

He says the croc may have moved on but they will not be taking any chances.

"It may have left with the tide last yesterday afternoon or it may still be there," he said.

"We will put a trap in and do another spotlight search tonight."

Mr Nichols says he does not believe it was a false report.

"We just followed it up for the simple reason of the amount of people that utilise the area, especially kids," he said.

"Even though we did not see anything, people must be croc-wise and they must be cautious all the time.

"If there is a saltwater section then there is always the chance of a crocodile.

"People must be vigilant and be careful."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-04 ... search/3208426?section=nt

Culling can't save the Tasmanian devil

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:17:54 +1800

Culling will not control the spread of facial tumour disease among Tasmanian devils, according to a new study published this week in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology. Unless a way of managing the disease is found, the iconic marsupial could become extinct in the wild within the next 25 years.

Testing and culling infected animals is widely used to control disease in livestock, but its use in wild animals is controversial. Between 2004 and 2010, culling trials of devils on the Forestier Peninsula - an almost completely isolated peninsula in south-eastern Tasmania - found that the strategy failed to halt the spread of Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD).

In this new study, Nick Beeton of the University of Tasmania and Professor Hamish McCallum of Griffith University devised models to test the impact of more aggressive culling. They found that an unfeasibly large number of devils would need to be culled to control the disease.

According to Mr Beeton: "For all the models we used, we found the removal rate required to suppress disease was higher than that which would be feasible in the field. "Disease suppression can only work if you can catch enough of the infected animals in the population to make sure the disease won't bounce back. Our models show that even for a trappable animal like the Tasmanian devil, catching enough of them to eradicate disease is a tall order."

The latest results confirm the view now held by the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program – an Australian and Tasmanian government initiative – to end culling as a way of controlling the disease.

Efforts to save the devil now centre on three other strategies – setting up insurance populations, finding genetic resistance and developing a vaccine.

"Given the limited progress in developing vaccines against human cancers, despite huge investment in research, hoping a vaccine can be developed against DFTD seems optimistic," Professor McCallum says.

The disease seems to be increasing less rapidly in devils living in north-western Tasmania, suggesting this population may have some genetic resistance to the disease.

At least 200 devils are already in captivity in Australian mainland zoos and disease-free populations of devils in large enclosures are being established in Tasmania and mainland Australia.

According to Mr Beeton: "It is important also to establish disease-free wild living populations on islands or in very large fenced landscapes. Wild animals are more suitable for reintroduction to the Tasmanian mainland if needed."

DFTD was first detected in Mount William in north-eastern Tasmania in 1996. Since then the infectious cancer, thought to be transmitted by biting during mating, has spread across most of the devil's range. As a result, populations of the world's largest surviving marsupial carnivore have declined by 60%.

###

Nick Beeton and Hamish McCallum (2011), 'Models predict that culling is not a feasible strategy to prevent extinction of Tasmanian devils from facial tumour disease', doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2011.02060.x, is published in the Journal of Applied Ecology on Wednesday 5 October 2011.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/w-ccs100311.php

Gun law alert sept 2011, urgent action required, firearm Confiscations again! Your sport is at risk

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:23:25 +1800

If we do nothing, Queensland will make law in Mid October 2011 banning centre fire rifles which have a built in magazine capacity of over 10 shots, pump actions, lever actions anything that can take 11 shots, will have to be handed in for NO compensation. That means Model 1866 (Henry) Winchester, Model 1873 Winchesters, Model 1892 Winchester’s 1873, likewise Browning, Marlin, Remington, Rossi, Puma, Colt Lighting, Chiappa, Uberti, Henry, Timberwolf, and Remington Pumps, one in the chamber puts the rifles built in magazine capacity at 11and if you have done the right thing and registered that rifle you will have to hand it in for no compensation. There are many more sad, idiotic, sections of legislation in the Weapons Amendment Bill of 2011 WeaponsAmB11 which enpowers the government to misuse its power, by stealing lawfully owned property from law abiding citizens.

Have no doubt about it,we who have experienced the way that legislation is interpreted by courts and police know that that the government is the largest criminal organisation in Australia. It steals property and destroys its opponents, that is criminal.

A Change In Government?? LIBERAL NATIONAL PARTY AS BAD AS LABOUR.
We have all hoped for change, we dream of a political group that will appear on a white charger and lead us to victory. We have hoped that Labour will lose the next election in Queensland. Currently that will make no difference as the ‘Shadow Minister for Police’ who if Labour loses, will be the next Police Minister John-Paul Mr LANGBROEK is an absolute anti gun moron.

In his speech on this proposed bill on the 8th September 2011 HANSARD 2011_09_08 Scroll down to Weapons Amendment Act, read for yourself here are some excepts, he says’,
“the safety of Queenslanders is one of our top priorities”. (Yet he disarms us?)

“In the 15 years since these radical reforms were introduced, it is clear that there has been success in controlling gun use. There has not been another massacre like that which occurred at Port Arthur all those years ago.” ( he has forgotten that Queensland massacres are done with a box of matches as in Childers Palace Fire – In June 2000, Robert Long killed 15 people, and the Whiskey Au Go Go fire in 1973 which killed another 15 people. How is he going to keep Queenslanders safe from boxes of matches) THE TRUTH ABOUT GUNS,CRIME AND VIOLENCE RESULTS OF THE ’96/’97 AUSTRALIAN GUN LAWS & “BUYBACK.
The Mr Langbroek, shadow minster for Police, continued with;
“the introduction of an approved safety training course as a prerequisite for registration. Key recommendations to address these issues include introducing online processing of licence applications and permits and introducing new fees for selected weapons transactions”
(He is clueless, he mixes up registration with licenses and does not know we have had a training course before licence for over ten years, and fee’s for licences and permits have recently risen 126%)

“Members are now required to manually complete a form for a permit to acquire—or PTA—whereas with the old system it was computer generated. Delays in the issue of PTAs have extended to months, and a prerecorded telephone message was used by Weapons Licensing to advise callers that they should expect delays and not to call.” (He has the delay right but PTA applications have never been computer generated)

“In every state of Australia, the debate over gun control ignites considerable passion and it is important to dispel some myths. There has never been an unfettered right for Australians to possess firearms for any reason including self-defence.” (The Bill of Rights 1689, does that it laid out certain basic rights for all Englishmen. These rights continue to apply today, not only in England and Wales, but in each of the jurisdictions of the Commonwealth realms as well.
“Disarming Protestants, &c.
By causing severall good Subjects being Protestants to be disarmed at the same time when Papists were both Armed and Employed contrary to Law.
Subjects’ Arms.
That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions and as allowed by Law. ” This was re-introduced and still stands in Queenslands laws under the Imperial Acts Applications Act of 1984. Mr LANGBROEK is totally unaware of the legislation that he is tampering with.)

Langbroek continues “Even the United States Constitution, which is often misquoted by proponents of gun ownership, does not confer such a right. The second amendment to the US Constitution states— “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
That is a very different proposition from the belief that every individual should have the right to possess whatever weapons they wish. ( Anyone who can read the English language can understand, “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”, is he an imbecile? He is only a Dentist but he should be able to understand simple words)

Langbroek continues “Even licensed, they serve no useful purpose in a civilised society. I acknowledge that there are those people who enjoy shooting exotic weapons either recreationally or competitively, and there are provisions in the legislation for them to do so. Their concerns about restrictions on owning and operating firearms have been heard.
I acknowledge that professional, recreational or competitive shooters who observe weapon control legislation do not necessarily pose a risk to the community at large, but that does not give them an automatic right to possess whatever weapons in whatever quantity they wish.”
(So this gives him the right to advocate the removal of our property, what arrogance.)

Langbroek continues “The respected criminologist Professor Paul Wilson was quoted in that Brisbane Times article Professor Wilson said the increase in gun ownership was ‘worrying’. He said— “The evidence is fairly clear; the more guns a community has, the more chances there are of crimes.” (This is same Paul Wilson that wrote the incorrect ‘Hell Town’( about Gympie) article in Australian pornographic Penthouse magazine, he is a frequent contributor, he supports the Sex party, legalisation of drugs and opposes legislation of ‘Bikie’ Gangs, and Langbroek things he is ‘respected’)

Langbroek continues “I take this opportunity to thank the minister and his staff from the department for the briefing I received in relation to this bill.” (It shows who he takes notice of, who would vote for the LNP when they are just as rotten as the Labour Party taking their breif form the Police )
Langbroek continues; Particularly, these issues are covered by the first stage of the amendment process, which we will not be opposing.” (This bill is the first stage, they have another ready in the wings)

We must STOP this Bill.

This Bill is bad law, it doubles penalties for many offences such as not signing the range register at the club, and makes knives Category M so they have to be licensed and registered. Can you open them with one hand, such as a paper knife, or a Stanley knife or even a pair of scissors. The interpretation is up to the police and their courts.

Langbroek also states, “There are currently more 155,000 firearm licence holders in Queensland, 14,622 of whom are in the Gold Coast region. In a report from the Brisbane Times it was found that the number of new gun licences issued across Queensland increased 19 per cent, from 12,818 to 15,260.”

Which is rubish anyway as figures releases in 1998 put the licenced holders in Queensland at 120,000, and with the published increases of 19% or even 12,818 extra per year makes nonsense of either or all the figures he is producing. We do know that there has been massive increases as Safety Course Instructors have been reporting that over the last five years. We know that Weapons Licencing Branch cannot cope with the increases in Licence applications and Permits to Acquire so have pushed this legislation so to limit the amount of firearms on the registry and the remove as many shooters off their books as soon as possible.

This has to be Stopped.
If there are only licenced 155,000 shooters in Queensland, plus the unknown number of un licensed then with their wives and friends that puts a voting figure of at least 310,000. That is the largest voting group in this country. This number of votes can make or break ever parliament in Australia. The largest political party this nation has ever seen was the National Party in the 1980s with 60,000 members, since they betrayed the Firearm Owners in 1997 and again with the banning of handguns in 2003 that has dwindled so far that to remain in existence they have had to amalgamatewith the Liberals into the LNP. I told Russel Cooper in 1996 “if they implented the John Howard laws that the National Part M.Ps would travleing to parlaiment in a mini bus”. Since then the National Party imploded and with Langbroek stance is now facing impending doom.

We have to Act in a unified way.
Now knowing that the LNP are going to vote with Labour on this further Gun Ban, Rather than allow our elected members of parliament to hide behind anonymity, we would like to force them to make their vote public and for that vote to be recorded in Hansard. At least we can then deal with those who vote for it at soon coming election. To this end the Shooters Union phoned Liz Cunningham, the independent member for Gladstone. (Remember this courageous woman? She stood alone and voted against the amendments to the Weapons Act in 1996 which resulted in registration, compulsory club membership, the requirement for fixed term licences, PTAs etc). They asked if she would call for a division, so that the names of each and every individual who votes for this Bill is recorded ( Very useful at the coming election.) She said that she already planned to do so but to have the names of those voting against the bill recorded, there have to be five votes against. There are only five Independents and one of those Peter Wellington is a Labour party swinging voter anyway, so we need to let all of parliament know that shooters are a unified force and that we can act together. Earlier this year Labour withdrew its Weapons Amendment Bill due to receiving 2500 submissions opposing it, before the next debate on this Bill Tuesday 11th October, contact your local politician, by phone, but preferably by email, or letter, advising her/him to vote against the bill .

GET YOUR ACTION KIT HERE.

This link will take you to a complete list of all Queensland politicians.

http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/docu ... /mailingLists/MEMLIST.pdf

Either print out the submission below or post, or hand it in at your local members office, or cut and paste this into an email send it to your local member of parliament or all on the list, but do something, or we all lose our rights and property.

WEAPONS AMENDMENT BILL of 2011

Name ………………………………….
Address…………………………………………………..
………………………………….P/c…………… Telephone Num…………………………………

To my State Representative

………………………………………………………………………

It is my submission that you do not vote or support the Weapons Amendment Bill of 2011.
It does not serve justice on individual wrong doers and collectively punishes the innocent by removing their rights to own property that they lawfully are entitled to do. It gives no compensation for this property.
Please pass my submission to the Police Minister, as I do not wish him to support this Bill and will never vote for anyone that votes or supports this Bill.

Yours

Sign …………………………………….

Date…………………………………….

To Add more Reasons. Say this.
1.Banning firearms with over 10 shot capacity will not reduce crime and make Queensland a safer place.
2. Increased penalties on licensed shooters does not prevent crimes against the public.
3. Banning knives does not solve a knife problem; it only places restrictions on law abiding members of the community, such as Butchers, Chefs, Farmers, (Farmers have already been charged for having stock knives is a belt pouch. When they come into town)
4. all of the increased regulations on firearms do nothing to make the community safer, or to prevent or solve weapons crimes. They only place restrictions on the law abiding.

If you want any other material to aim at these politicians go to
THE TRUTH ABOUT GUNS,CRIME AND VIOLENCE RESULTS OF THE

’96/’97 AUSTRALIAN GUN LAWS & “BUYBACK
http://www.gunsandcrime.org/auresult.html
http://www.gunsandcrime.org/austudies.html
Guns make it easier to kill and injure people. Therefore, it is obvious to any fool that reducing the prevalence of guns will reduce the prevalence of death and injury. But, what about people who aren’t fools? Read the above Links.

And also on Australian Bureau of Statistics.
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.n ... 773700169C9F?opendocument

“In April 2005, there were 15,966,900 persons aged 15 years and over living in private dwellings in Australia. In the 12 months prior to the survey it was estimated that:
58,900 (0.4%) persons were victims of at least one robbery
770,600 (4.8%) persons were victims of at least one assault
44,100 (0.3%) persons aged 18 years and over were victims of at least one sexual assault.
Unlawful entry with intent 248 475
In total 841,500 persons aged 15 years and over were victims of one or more of these selected personal crimes, equating to an overall personal victimisation prevalence rate of 5.3%. Is this making Australia a safer place?
Out of 258 murders in 2008
Firearm was 31
Knife was 87
Bat/Chemicals 9
Other weapons 35
And NO weapons were used in 85 murders how is Mr Landbroek going to legislate to stop the 85 murders that people have committed with there hands. Amputate every ones right hand?

Crocodile taxidermist pushes for legal crocodile hunting

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 08:09:25 +1800

A CROCODILE taxidermist has renewed calls for safari croc hunting to be allowed in the Northern Territory.

'Crocodile' Mick Pitman has just sold a stuffed 4.5m male saltie for $20,000 to a Queensland collector who wants to put it in his lounge.

He says this is evidence that an industry can be created around snuffing and stuffing crocs. The animal was a "problem" croc taken from Janamba Crocodile Farm and took four months to stuff with sawdust.

http://resources0.news.com.au/images/ ... 8-croc-safaris-wanted.jpg

"He wouldn't assimilate with anything or anybody," Mr Pitman said.

"I don't want to see him go out the door but that's the way it is - it's a work from the heart.

"An animal like that is an icon - you want to make him as real as you can."

Safari hunting was approved by the NT Government but knocked back by Federal Parliament in October 2010.

Mr Pitman said he gets "a lot" of inquires about stuffed crocs and safaris.

He wants to shoot 25 problem crocs a year and is willing to work with a wildlife ranger.

Mr Pitman said it would be a good earner for remote communities.

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