SSAA NSW

11 ISSUE 60 JUNE 2021 Jai's Journal G'day Members, Welcome to another edition of the NSW Shooter Magazine! It certainly has been a very busy and successful time for SSAA NSW. Your Board and staff have been working extremely hard. It is fantastic to see that since my last report, our sport has resumed and is as close as possible to normal as can be expected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although we had to take hard decisions early last year, it is clear that they have paid off. I am enjoying travelling to various ranges and events seeing people once again enjoying the sport we all love. The biggest contributing factor to restarting our sport and recreation was our members, Branches and Affiliate Clubs all working together to implement our COVID-19 Safety Plan as well as following health guidelines. STRONGER TOGETHER There is a common theme of unity throughout SSAA NSW that underpins all of our successes. We coined this as the slogan, "Stronger Together," with our recent advocacy campaign on the Firearms and Weapons Legislation Amendment (Criminal Use) Bill. From working internally as a team within the Association to working externally with other stakeholders including other Peak Associations, industry and community partners has ensured even greater success. Focusing on what unites us all and the shooting sports has certainly made our advocacy stronger. SSAA NSW ADVOCACY The report from SSAA NSW President Lance Miller has outlined our advocacy campaign in relation to the Firearms and Weapons Legislation Amendment (Criminal Use) Bill and the successful ePetition that was launched. We take this opportunity to thank all our 59,000 fantastic SSAA NSW members across all our great Branches who stood with us every step of the way. Also, a big thank you to all the various Peak Associations, Clubs, industry groups and community groups, including SIFA and the NSW Dealers Association, who partnered with us to grow the ePetition. External organisations like NSW Farmers also joined with us to publicly express concern over the bill. Together, we have achieved the fastest growing and largest ever ePetition in NSW history. While the ePetition and subsequent Parliamentary debate were the main goal of this process, the greatest and most important outcome from the campaign has been the shooting community, demonstrating that more can be achieved when we work together. Thank you to the Hon. Robert Borsak MLC who chaired the Upper House Inquiry whose committee made a number of positive recommendations to amend the bill. SSAA NSW was proud to present at the Inquiry and outline sensible amendments that should be included. We are pleased that those suggestions have been incorporated into the report. Thank you also to Philip Donato, Member for Orange, for receiving the ePetition and tabling it at Parliament on our behalf. SSAA NSW has spent the last couple of months meeting with many members of Parliament from all sides of the political spectrum. Our team recently spent a full two days at NSW Parliament meeting with the Deputy Leaders of the political parties, ministers, shadow ministers, cross benchers, Parliamentary secretaries and JAI ROWELL CEO, SSAA NSW

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