VCAT: Our new push to find out what the Victoria Police told the government
“If you haven’t got anything to hide,
then what’s the problem?”
That’s what the police will say when people won’t talk to them.
Why then won’t they tell us what their ‘recommendations for firearm reform legislation’ are? Yep, Victoria Police has something to hide – and we’re leading the fight to find out what it is.
Many of you already know the story: we commenced action in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in May after Victoria Police denied release of the documents on what we believe were dubious grounds.
That led to a Directions Hearing in July and last Friday, a “Compulsory Conference”. Part of the purpose of the conference is to see whether was any scope for the parties to agree on a settlement before going to a hearing; suffice to say there was no settlement.
It also identified the legal issues in dispute (which go to the reason Victoria Police are claiming the FOI exemptions) and who will be called to give what evidence.
We are now instructing our barrister to proceed to an “admin mention” at which time we should have a timeframe for the parties to prepare their witness statements and finally a hearing date. Its still not yet clear when that will be but hopefully we’ll know in the next couple of weeks.
It’s a slow but interesting process, which is also resulting in mounting bills. However this is an important fight over what role the police play in policy – and whether they can hide behind protections which no-one else can use.
It’s the most important legal fight we’ve had for some time – and one which you can be part of.
So we’ve launched a GoFundMe campaign to help pay the bills to take this as far as we can for the future of the shooting sports.
This compliments our earlier Paypal donation drive which got this started, to which many of you have kindly donated.
Don’t go it alone!
It’s now the turn of other shooters to help out. If you’ve got friends and shooting mates who can help, then share this blog with them now. If you’re a member of a club, print this out and pop it up on your notice board
Many hands make light work – a win will help every shooter, club and association in Victoria. We just need to make that happen.
You can find our GoFundMe campaign page by clicking here.
If you’d like us to give a quick talk on the VCAT action at your club, just drop us a line at admin@firearmscouncil.org.au