Update for SSAA Queensland Members

Several members have contacted us about SSAA National (SSAA Inc) reaching out to them and even misleading them into joining a newly formed Queensland shooting company registered in South Australia. If this has happened to you, please let us know.

Let us be clear: all SSAA Queensland members have always been, are currently, and will continue to be covered by public liability. Claims have been made about a new organisation providing public liability insurance, but SSAA Queensland has managed its own protection for many years in conjunction with some of the same companies SSAA Inc uses.

SSAA Queensland will continue to recognise SSAA membership from other states and territories at all of our ranges. We welcome shooters from across the country to our clubs, events and state championships. We also remain committed to representing Queensland nationally and internationally, just as we did recently when our state team placed third overall at the World Action Pistol Championships in New Zealand.

We urge shooters in Queensland to act very carefully when joining or renewing their membership. If renewing online, please make sure you are using the SSAA Queensland website.

Several members have been misled and pushed into joining the recently made ‘Queensland Hunting and Shooting’ organisation by inadvertently going to the SSAA Inc website member’s section. This is incorrect and does not equate to joining or renewing with SSAA Queensland. In fact, we asked Queensland Weapons and Licensing about this new organisation, and it said it had not heard of ‘Queensland Hunting and Shooting’ and therefore it is unlikely to count as a genuine reason.

Regarding the claim by SSAA Inc that SSAA Queensland owes $970,000: we categorically reject this figure. The last service fee paid to SSAA Inc more than covered the period it refers to. These figures have been thoroughly reviewed and verified by independent accountants, and we stand firmly behind them.

SSAA Queensland remains the largest, most financially secure and self-reliant shooting and hunting organisation in Australia, with more than 75 branches state-wide. We are an independent association, and we implore SSAA Inc to stop misinforming our 80,000 Queensland members.

The SSAA is structured similarly to Australia’s motoring organisations. Just as the NRMA, RACQ and RACV are state-based associations that collectively form the Australian Automobile Association (AAA), SSAA’s state and territory branches are the only members of SSAA Inc. Individual shooters join their state association, not the national office. That is why no individual member is a member of SSAA Inc.

We urge SSAA Inc to reconsider its direction and instead refocus on supporting shooters and working collaboratively.

As we have said repeatedly, this is not about a ‘breakaway’. SSAA Queensland simply no longer requires several of the services offered by SSAA Inc and is financially capable of making decisions that are in the best interests of Queensland shooters.

SSAA Queensland will not be bullied or intimidated. We will continue working for our members and getting on with the job – not playing political games.

Jeff Ross,
President SSAA Queensland