Queensland election 2017: firearm billboards could make the difference

Toowoomba’s Chris Howard, spokesman for the Law Abiding Firearm Owners Inc, said they had been “absolutely brilliant” in delivering a solid message from the shooting community, not just to the three important swing seats of Mundingburra, Thuringowa and Townsville, but to Queensland in general via social media.

While those three seats were chosen for their potential impact on Labor’s electoral prospects, a later billboard erected in Rockhampton has since been donated to another grassroots movement, Flick’em, whose motto is “Put the majors last”.

“Their values are aligned with ours,” Mr Howard said.

He said the LNP, by voting with the ALP in parliament to defeat a Katter’s Australian Party motion for primary producers to have “as of right” access to category H weapons – pistols – had been a kick in the guts.

“We’ll support any political party that looks after primary producers, sporting shooters and occupational users, and that’s KAP and One Nation,” he said.

His conviction that the billboards were doing the intended job came from feedback from the sporting shooters’ community.

“We’ll continue with the campaign message but mainly through social media now,” he said, hinting at further messages to come in the next few days.

Polling conducted in April showed the ALP’s policies placing increasing restrictions on firearm use were likely to cost the party Townsville’s three most marginal seats and potentially the overall state election.

At that time, there had been a swing away from both the ALP (down 14 per cent) and the LNP (down 11pc) in Mundingburra, Thuringowa and Townsville, according to LAFO-commissioned polling by Sexton Marketing Group. That was countered by support for One Nation (up 13pc) and Katter’s Australian Party (up 12pc).

According to the polling, 20pc of ALP voters in Townsville would change their vote based on firearms policies, while 51pc of minor party voters indicated they’d direct their preferences away from the ALP if they continued down the restrictive route of firearms legislation.

“That happened and I’ll bet people carry through,” Mr Howard said. “With compulsory preferential voting, if either KAP or One Nation runs second, there’s a good chance they could win after a preference distribution.”

LAFO plans to hand out how-to-vote cards for political parties willing to work with legitimate firearms owners.