23/12/2025
WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED OR SCAPEGOATED!
In Response to the NSW Upper House Debate on Fi****ms
What occurred in the NSW Parliament yesterday and again today marks a turning point.
If the proposed firearm laws proceed unchallenged, they will fundamentally and permanently alter the relationship between the State and every law-abiding firearm owner in New South Wales. These changes are not incremental, and they are not temporary. They represent a decisive shift away from evidence-based regulation toward governance driven by political fear and expediency.
South Coast Precision and law abiding firearm owners will not be silenced, and we will not be scapegoated. Silence will be interpreted as consent, and consent is not given.
What Is at Stake
Today’s debate was not about criminals, extremists, or illegal fi****ms. It was about convenience. Law-abiding, compliant citizens have been selected as the easiest political sacrifice.
If these reforms proceed as proposed, the consequences are clear and foreseeable:
• The erosion of lawful property rights through forced surrender, reclassification, and buyback
• The deliberate attrition of licence holders through escalating cost, risk, and regulatory exhaustion
• The collapse of professional pest eradication capacity across New South Wales
• Hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer expenditure with no measurable public safety return
• Long-term environmental and biosecurity damage that cannot be reversed
This is not conjecture. It is the predictable outcome of targeting compliance instead of criminality.
Who We Are and What We Do
South Coast Precision Feral Pest Eradication exists to serve a demonstrable public good. Our work protects primary producers from catastrophic loss, safeguards native ecosystems from invasive species, reduces road and aviation strike risks, and prevents the spread of serious animal-borne disease.
This work is carried out lawfully, professionally, and under one of the most stringent fi****ms regulatory regimes in the world. It cannot be performed safely, humanely, or effectively without access to lawful fi****ms used as tools of trade.
Yet throughout today’s Upper House debate, fi****ms were discussed almost exclusively through the lens of fear, symbolism, and political urgency — rather than evidence, proportionality, or operational reality.
Existing Powers Are Already Extensive
Repeated assertions were made that further legislative change is required to allow police to refuse or revoke fi****ms licences based on intelligence or perceived risk. This is misleading.
NSW Police already possess broad powers to:
• Refuse licence applications on public interest grounds
• Suspend or revoke licences based on intelligence holdings
• Impose conditions, conduct inspections, and seize fi****ms
• Act pre-emptively where risk thresholds are met
These powers are exercised regularly and accepted by licence holders as a condition of lawful ownership. To suggest otherwise is to either misunderstand existing law or misrepresent it.
Criminal Misuse Is Not Lawful Ownership
Perhaps the most damaging aspect of today’s debate was the continued conflation of criminal acts with licensed fi****ms ownership.
Professional pest controllers, farmers, and sporting shooters were spoken of as if they are adjacent to criminal misuse, rather than standing in direct opposition to it. This narrative is unsupported by data, policing outcomes, or experience.
Fi****ms used in criminal violence are overwhelmingly:
• Unlicensed
• Illegally acquired
• Unregistered
• Stored and handled entirely outside the regulatory framework
Additional restrictions on compliant licence holders do not disrupt criminal supply chains, deter violent offenders, or address radicalisation or organised crime. They simply expand the regulatory burden on those who already follow the law.
P650 Restrictions Will Not Improve Public Safety
The proposed restrictions on P650 licence holders exemplify policy driven by perception rather than risk.
P650 holders are among the most heavily scrutinised, trained, and regulated fi****ms users in New South Wales. There is no credible evidence linking lawful P650 ownership to criminal violence, terrorism, or public harm.
Restricting or banning the P650 will not:
• Reduce criminal access to fi****ms
• Disrupt illegal trafficking
• Improve intelligence-led policing
• Enhance public safety outcomes
What it will do is undermine business continuity, restrict lawful tools of trade, and send a clear message that even the highest level of compliance offers no protection from political scapegoating.
Impact on Professional Pest Management
For professional operators, these reforms are not abstract.
Arbitrary firearm caps, accessory bans, and administrative barriers will:
• Reduce operational efficiency in time-critical pest control
• Increase costs for landholders, councils, and the public
• Limit the ability to deploy appropriate tools for humane outcomes
• Undermine biosecurity and invasive species management
Feral animal control is not a recreational activity. It is a necessity. Restricting lawful access to tools of trade does not make communities safer — it makes essential work harder, slower, and less effective.
Economic, Environmental, and Community Cost
The cost of these reforms will be borne widely:
• By firearm owners, through increased fees, forced loss of property, and permanent uncertainty
• By taxpayers, through a buyback costing hundreds of millions while illegal fi****ms remain untouched
• By the NSW economy, through business closures, job losses, and capital flight from regional and peri-urban areas
• By the environment, through exploding feral populations, habitat destruction, and irreversible biodiversity loss
This is not reform. It is damage inflicted by policy that refuses to distinguish between risk and responsibility.
Rushed Process, Absent Consultation
Sweeping, permanent changes to fi****ms law are being advanced through a rushed parliamentary process with little meaningful consultation. Those who will carry the cost — professionals, rural communities, and compliant licence holders — were not meaningfully engaged.
Consultation is not a courtesy. It is a safeguard against failure. That safeguard was absent today.
Our Position Is Clear
South Coast Precision Feral Pest Eradication supports strong, intelligent, enforceable fi****ms regulation. We comply with audits, inspections, training, health checks, and continuous vetting because public safety matters — in practice, not rhetoric.
What we reject is policy that punishes compliance, ignores evidence, and sacrifices essential industries for political optics.
Law-abiding does not mean silent.
Professional does not mean disposable.
Public safety demands evidence, not expedience.
South Coast Precision Feral Pest Eradication