Free Republic

LEVER action shotguns – “tools of the trade” to the North West farming community – have officially been reclassified into the tightest legal ranking. The Firearms and Weapons Legislation Amendment Act 2017 came into effect on November 1, re-categorising lever action shotguns with a magazine capacity of no more than five rounds from a category A to a category B, and those with a magazine capacity of more than five rounds from a category A to a category D. NSW Nationals Senator John “Wacka” Williams has publicly attacked the reclassification, labelling it “unfair” and “inconsistent”. “My opinion is that...

Here is a news story that will make no sense whatsoever to anyone who is not Australian - and, indeed, shouldn't really make any sense even if you are Australian. From The Sunday Times of Perth: Senator Parry has released a statement confirming he will step down as President of the Senate and resign his seat if British authorities say that he is a British citizen. The senator is still awaiting confirmation from the authorities... "As a result of this I have had cause to examine my citizenship status in relation to my late father having being born in the...

It’s the last scene of The Merchant of Venice and the Christians are celebrating. They have love, youth and wealth on their side. Best of all, they have outsmarted “the Jew”. Not only does Shylock not get his pound of flesh, but he is forced to convert – his kippah brutally ripped off his head – and sign away his fortune to his daughter Jessica, who has turned her back on her family to elope. While the group cavorts around the Sydney Opera House stage with giddy, ecstatic abandon, Jessica goes quiet. She bursts into tears, sinks to the...

Canberra, with its “zero emissions” target, yearns to be Australia’s greenest address. Good. Let’s use them as a full-blown test of “zero emissions” before we all jump over that cliff. Canberra (the center of Australia Capital Territory, the equivalent of the District of Columbia) passes thousands of laws for us. If their zero emissions dream is fair dinkum, they need to pass just three laws for themselves. First, ban all petrol, diesel and gas-powered trucks, cars, boats, generators, and aeroplanes from Canberra. That should remove emissions from their atmosphere, food from their supermarkets, and leave their roads free for pedestrians...

Opponents of an armed population often make the unfounded claim that AR-15 rifles are unsuitable for hunting. Joe Clowers of Texas shows that America's favorite rifle, some variation of the AR-15, works very well for hunting feral pigs. From theepochtimes.com: A Texas man shot a 416-pound boar that he found ripping up his backyard and terrorizing the makeshift deer sanctuary he has on his land. Joe Clowers, of Union Grove, Texas, said he shot the boar with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. He was fed up with the boar preying on his fawns for the last five years. The semi-automatic...

In a blow for multiculturalism and open door migration, a majority of Australian voters believe the country is full and almost half support a partial ban on new Muslim arrivals.The changing approach to immigration Down Under has been highlighted in a new survey that shows that just over 50 per cent of voters agree that Australia has changed beyond recognition and “sometimes feels like a foreign country.” The Australian Population Research Institute (TAPRI) conducted the polling. The independent organisation claims the results are driven by a rapid change in Australia’s ethnic and religious make-up and concerns over quality of life.It comes as ordinary...

The Turnbull Government has lost its one-seat majority after the High Court ruled Barnaby Joyce's election invalid because of his New Zealand citizenship. Mr Joyce will now face a by-election. The court also found former Greens senators Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters were not validly elected, along with One Nation's Malcolm Roberts and the National Party's Fiona Nash.

The latest video by Australia's "no" on gay marriage campaign has been banned from prime time TV in the country until 8:30 p.m., as it was deemed too explicit — for featuring quotes that students are taught in school. Yahoo7 News reported that the 30-second ad has been given an MA rating due to "depictions of implied sexual activity and verbal sexual references." The Coalition for Marriage used passages from the controversial Safe Schools sexuality education program to showcase just what pupils are being taught. "Penis-in-vagina sex is not the only sex, and certainly is not the ultimate sex," one...

Irish colonists were among those who mistreated Australia’s indigenous people, the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to Australia’s House of Representatives has said. Linda Burney, MP, said that it must be acknowledged that the Irish had a historical role in committing atrocities against the Aboriginal people. Burney’s comments come days after Irish president Michael D. Higgins recognized during a speech in Western Australia the role of the Irish in injustices against the Aboriginal people. […] The Labor Party MP also spoke about “the warm relationship” between the Irish and Aboriginal people today, and mentioned the number of Aboriginal people...

A Hampton Park man has been charged with allegedly providing funds and services to people involved with Islamic State in Syria.The 43-year-old was arrested during dawn raids, after an investigation involving the Joint Counter Terrorism team.He’s due to face Melbourne Magistrates Court later today.It will be alleged the man provided funds and services to people in the conflict in Syria supporting the terror network.Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Specialist Operations Shane Patton said the arrest sent a strong message.“This arrest sends a very strong message of deterrence to those who would seek to provide support or fund terrorism that they will...

The Australian nationwide gun amnesty is over. It lasted three months, was nationwide, and received a lot of attention, domestic and international. I was there for almost the entire amnesty, from 1 July to September 26. The Amnesty ended on 30 September.While I was there I talked to dozens of gun owners, employees and owners of gun shops, and police officers. There are some interesting things that are not being written about or are overlooked.Most articles are claiming that over 50,000 guns were turned in and will be destroyed. I believe the 50,000 number for guns turned in. I...

SYDNEY — Australia's near 100-year automotive industry ended on Friday as Holden, a unit of General Motors, closed its plant in South Australia to move manufacturing to cheaper locations. The closure comes a year after Toyota and Ford similarly moved out, eliminating thousands of manufacturing jobs. It adds pressure on the government to help those made redundant find work in a battleground state ahead of a federal election in 18 months.

The Pyongyang regime is clearly shaken up by President Donald Trump and resorting to clumsy desperation measures.  A letter sent to the "parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia" by the "Foreign Affairs Committee of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly" was revealed by Julie Bishop, Australia's foreign minister, who called it "unprecedented."  The letter came via the North Korean embassy in Jakarta, their closest diplomatic establishment to Australia, and was accompanied by an open letter to parliaments of the world.  These North Korean entities speak for Kim Jong-un. (Full texts below.) Both documents reveal that North Korea has bought into the image...

Australian gun rights advocates have raised $21,000 to help a farmer get back his firearms and gun license, which were taken after after he used an unloaded gun to protect his family against a knife-wielding trespasser. David Dunstan encountered the trespasser, who was armed with a knife and wooden club, at the back door of his Riverine property in the eastern state of New South Wales last month, according to a GoFundMe page set up to raise money for the farmer. Dunstan then grabbed his unloaded .22-caliber rifle and was able to ward off the man and convince him to...

A letter from North Korea to nations including Australia urging them to distance themselves from the United States has been described by Malcolm Turnbull as "a rant about how bad Donald Trump is". North Korea wrote an open letter to parliaments around the world, a month after US President Donald Trump spoke at the United Nations General Assembly and called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a "rocket man on a suicide mission for himself and his regime". The letter, from the Foreign Affairs Committee of the rogue state's Supreme People's Assembly, described Pyongyang as a fully-fledged nuclear power and said...

New Zealand is set for a centre-left coalition government led by Labour head Jacinda Ardern.

The Navy's new stealth submarines might not be so stealthy after all. A top executive at the company building the subs has thrown doubt on whether cutting-edge pump-jet propulsion technology will be used as planned. The ultra-quiet technology was a key selling point for the French design that won the Government's competitive evaluation process to build the new submarines at a cost of $50 billion. Jean-Michel Billig, Executive Director of Naval Group, was asked at a naval conference in Sydney earlier this month whether pump-jet propulsion "remained viable" for the Australian submarine. He said it "could" be viable, but also...

The Australian government said Thursday it was prepared to relax its proposed English language test for new citizens as a compromise to get other tough new restrictions on attaining citizenship through Parliament. Immigration and Borden Protection Minister Peter Dutton said his conservative government was prepared to reduce its proposed English-language skill threshold from “competent” to “modest:” a level of basic communication with many mistakes. The change would be from level six to five on the nine-level International English Language Testing System scale. Language skills are not currently tested in the Australian citizenship process although some English is required. ”We believe...

Defence looks set to plough hundreds of millions of dollars into sustaining and upgrading one of its most trouble-prone helicopter models despite the aircraft being grounded over potential safety issues and never seeing a war zone. The attack and reconnaissance Tiger helicopters, which cost about $1.5 billion and more than $800 million to sustain, are supposed to continue to operate into the 2020s. And to maintain operations to 2020, the aircraft needs a mid-life upgrade worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Due to the helicopter’s ongoing problems, such as running seven years late in reaching final operating capability, Defence was...

The mid-air emergency happened an hour out of Perth on Sunday afternoon when its cabin pressure plummeted. Malcolm and Janet Canning said it wasn't just passengers that were scared but airline staff too as the flight plummeted from 32,000 feet to just 10,000. "The panic was escalated because of the behaviour of staff who were screaming and looked tearful," passenger Clare Askew said.