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Groups advocating less strict gun laws in Australia poured more than $500,000 into last year's Queensland election, according to The Guardian. "Last year’s state election in Queensland was ground-zero for an increasingly vocal pro-gun lobby," Michael McGowan reports, "which flooded the campaign with $500,000 in election campaigning, helping the KAP [Katter Australia Party] and One Nation."The lobby didn't directly fund these parties. Instead, most of the campaign financing went to the Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia (SiFA), which The Guardian describes as "a third-party activist campaign aimed against the major parties."SiFA was established in 2014, and is directed by Robert Nioa—MP Bob Katter's son and Australia's largest private small arms importer. On its website, SiFA describes itself as "the peak body in research, advocacy, education and safety for one of our country’s oldest and most innovative industries [the firearms industry.]"
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During the election, the organisation ran a campaign called "Flick ‘Em 'Put the Majors Last,'" which was set up to "reduce the Primary Vote for Queensland Labor and the Liberal National Party… [and] deliver a minority government with the balance of power held by a quality cross-bench."According to the group, the campaign was "highly successful in terms of engagement, reach, reactions and positioning. It created a groundswell of support - particularly outside Queensland’s south-east corner and even captured hearts and minds in the metro area. The result? Just the lowest primary vote for the major parties in the history of the State, with one in three people choosing not to support either Labor or the LNP."And the political donations aren't limited to Queensland. According to The Guardian, since 2010 state branches of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia spent $440,800 on supporting the Liberal Democrats, the Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party, the Katter Australia Party, and others.Follow Maddison on Twitter