Newsroom

January 24, 2025

Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) MPs have joined the growing chorus of Queenslanders concerned that the State’s Weapons Licencing Branch (WLB) is presiding over a biosecurity catastrophe that could have long-standing consequences.

Last week the Shooter’s Union, joined by AgForce Queensland, signalled the alarm that landholders attempting to control rampant feral pest populations were being hamstrung by Brisbane-based civil servants denying them access to essential equipment.

Shooter’s Union president Graham Park said union members had contacted his team at a loss after their permits-to-acquire for firearms needed to control pest populations were being denied based on the decision-making whims of an office-based public servant.

“We’ve had reports of farmers being knocked back for common centrefire rifle calibres like .270 because someone at Weapons Licensing Branch thought it was “too big” for their intended use,” Mr Park said.

“Someone running a multi-million primary production business knows infinitely better … what sort of rifle suits the job at hand better than a clerk in Brisbane.

“There is absolutely mention in the Act or the Regulations about so called ‘large calibres’, and no information or consultation on why WLB have changed the rules.”

KAP Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter said his electorate, and most of rural Queensland, was dealing with pests like feral pigs and cats in plague proportions.

Earlier this month hundreds of wild pigs were sighted taking over a cattle trough at a station east of Mount Isa earlier this month, as reported by the ABC North West.

Ecologists have also raised the red flag on rapid growth of feral cat populations across western Queensland, as reported by the Queensland Country Life.

Mr Katter said landholders, and other recreational hunters, provided a service to the State that was essential from a biosecurity perspective.

He urged the Queensland Environment Department, now headed by the LNP’s Minister Andrew Powell, to stress to the WLB the importance of this work.

“These are people who are willing to undertake pest management and improve biosecurity on behalf of the State for free and in return they get punished by paper-pushers who have no idea the wide-reaching repercussions of their decisions,” he said.

“At the same time, politicians my KAP colleagues and myself are fighting for hundreds of millions of dollars for biosecurity to try and manage these problems which are really big threats to us here in Queensland and Australia.

“People in the city might not appreciate how serious this is but we’re talking about pest species, like pigs and cats in particular, spreading diseases and doing irreversible damage to our native flora and fauna as well as impacting on our agricultural sector and broader food security.”