Right around Australia, we are seeing governments taking an ever-increasing role in our lives and making decisions for us that previously we were allowed to make for ourselves.

This has become very obvious in almost every aspect of life. But increasingly there seems to be a trend towards the government wanting to get involved in our outdoor recreation in the things that we can do with our own land in things like hunting and fishing and firearms ownership. There’s all kinds of aspects to this from cultural heritage laws to various environmental overlays to things that are done in the name of our safety. This is happening Australia wide and unfortunately Western Australia is no exception to that. We’ve seen some really remarkable things happening in West Australia with regard to gun ownership, outdoor recreation, and indigenous rights. And I wanted to bring on someone by the name of David Finney, who is a West Australian who is no stranger to these issues and is looking to do something about them. David, thank you so much for joining me here on the Topher project.

[From video] No worries Topher, thank you for having me a short notice. Appreciate it. [End video]

Well, there’s many people that look around at Australia and look at what’s going on and they say, “Well, someone needs to do something.” It seems that you’ve decided to be a someone. Tell me a little bit about your journey up to this moment in time and what it is that you’re doing.

[From video]

Well, certainly I’ve been involved in shooting all my life and it became quite obvious that the pressures which were being applied in Western Australia were somewhat going off the scale. [End video]

I’m sorry to interrupt this interview with David Finney. We’ll get back to him in just a moment. But first, my name is Topher Field. This is the Topher Project and I help busy people like you to keep up with the world as it changes around you. If you appreciate this kind of Australian content by Australians for Australians, then please help me to keep the Topher project going by buying me a copy via the button at topherfield.net and also by checking out my books and DVDs and merch from goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com. There is my best-selling book, Good People Break Bad Laws. This is about civil disobedience in the modern age and the role that it plays even in functioning democracies such as ourselves. This is well worth a read. Unfortunately, we all need to be thinking and talking about civil disobedience in the times that we are in. There is also good Christians break bad laws. This is the theology of civil disobedience. Then there is battleground Melbourne, my documentary about the events during co that happened in my home city of Melbourne, Australia. Then I have a range of different designs in merch, in t-shirts, in long sleeve t-shirts and in hoodies. And all of that helps towards keeping the Topher project going. Without further ado, let’s get back to this interview with David Finney.

[From video]

We’ve had some of the most honorous gun laws ever since I arrived in this country over 35 years ago and they’ve now just decided to basically in the name of the of safety as you say declare that they are going to disarm the population. Our minister quite clearly said he wanted to reduce the number of guns, get guns off the streets and was run a fear campaign against nothing of any statistical value. So they have actually launched into us with some of the worst legislation you could ever imagine. Um and they have actually handed massive powers to our police force to write what is their secondary level of laws in our state which is the regulations and we now have 327 pages of regulations. [End video]

Now David, you’re a man who is sorry I apologize. I think we had a glitch on the in the internet there for a second. You’re a man who has seen much of the world. You’ve settled in Australia and called Australia home now for decades. This is a place that you love. It’s a place that you live. Why is it that you decided to take a leading role in this fight? And what is it that you’re organizing?

[From video]

Okay. Well, basically I I’ve done this off my own bat. Uh prompted by a few mates and shall we say with similar interests. I started off a petition because the Firearms Act, which is our first part of legislation, was horrendous. It was so badly written that it has actually with the agreement of the government been sent back for review. It’s such a shambles. Um but that review is just a sideways step. Nothing happens. They will review it for up to 12 months. 2,600 odd submissions later. They will tweak it at the edges, but the intent will not change. And in the meantime, in that period, the police are enforcing and removing firearms at every opportunity and putting every obstacle in the way and bullying people to basically give it and and basically give up. So it was clear that the enforcement was immoral during this period of review. So I simply started a petition saying please let’s stop all enforcement, wait for the review and we’ll take it from there.

However, it grew from there. I then found it there’s a ground swell behind me and people wanted more. So that resulted in let’s email all of our members of the legislative council to try and influence them to change their minds because one of our MPs has put up a what is called a disallowance motion which is to stop and retract the second part of our legislation which is the regulations. [End video]

Sure.

[From video]

And that’s happening this Thursday, 14th of August. And it’s really the only way that we can actually stop things now because as I say, the act will stop nothing. The review will stop nothing. So that then grew into let’s have a rally and which grew into let’s have an advertising campaign and I thank everybody who contributed to the advertising campaign on GoFundMe. We’ve managed to get this into local press. we managed to get it into rural press and now with the weekend we managed to get it into the statewide press. So I thank everybody who’s got behind me and done this. Uh couldn’t have done it without them. So yeah we are trying to say to government stop telling us how to run our lives. We need to wake up to this over government who want to control every aspect of our lives. And whilst the rally starts on the timing of the disallowance, you have to ask why does the government want to disarm the population? [End video]

This is something that I cover quite a lot in my videos. We have in Australia, according to the press, over 1 million unregistered guns that are these are what are called illegal guns. A proportion of those are in the hands of criminals and people who do wish to do harm to others. And yet our gun crime remains incredibly low. In a way, I view that almost as an advertisement for the peace loving nature of Australians. When you take into account the rarity of crimes with guns being committed by people who are licensed firearms owners, the ones who have gone through the system and complied with it, it’s an incredibly rare thing. You have to wonder what problem they’re they’re trying to solve. But also, David, I have to wonder just how much more problems they’re going to create. Let’s not forget that the West Australian government are the ones who leaked to the press the locations of registered gun uh safes and gun owners in Perth. Am I am I not mistaken?

[From video]

No, you’re quite correct. And that was all part of, shall we say, the fear campaign. [End video]

Yeah.

[From video]

This government loves fear. They got into power the previous session by the fear of Covid. This time they’ve created a perception of fear of guns with with myths like guns on the street. There is no guns on the street. It’s just an absolutely non-statistical event in Western Australia. Mhm. They quoted figures, shall we say, very selectively, that in 2022 there was 20 deaths from firearms, conveniently leaving out that 17 of those were suicides, and many of those suicides were actual acting or past police officers. So, never let the truth get in the way of a good fairy tale when it comes to politics. [End video]

No, that certainly seems to be the case. And in a way, even if they were right, if there were all these guns on the streets, the fact that there have been three homicides involving guns based on the figures that you just cited there, David, uh then that would actually be an advertisement for the fact that they’re not a problem and that having them on the street would not be an issue. But of course, uh logic is not their strong suit. Tell me a little bit about this event. Where is it? When is it? What should people bring? What are the messages that you’re trying to get across?

[From video]

The message is it’s time. This is our time to stand up. This is the day when we can actually change things. We can actually this is the last legislative step. We need to stand up and say to all these politicians who are going down this remove our liberties route, we are a force to be reckoned with. We need to stand there on the steps of parliament from 11:00 onwards in Perth, Western Australia and say no, we have had enough. And it’s not shooters, it’s everybody else you mentioned. We have farmers being told what they can and cannot do with their property. This is government overreach and it’s extreme and basically it has to be stopped. Our population needs to bring back government to the people. Currently we have government for government’s sake on their own agenda. And we really need the public to to wake up. This is not the Australia I came to 30 odd years ago where Australians spoke up. [End video]

Yeah.

[From video] And we’re rugged and robust. We need to be very robust this time around. [End video]

I could not agree more. And we’re we’re in an interesting moment. Pardon me, I’m getting tongue tied today. We’re in an interesting moment because in Queensland, we have a petition that is doing very well petitioning for castle law in Queensland. We have a similar thing coming in Victoria. This is breaking news from just last night where David Limbrick, the Libertarian Party MP down there, is pushing for the same thing and that’ll be going into Parliament uh later on this week. We have similar things happening in New South Wales. In Western Australia, it seems that shooters over there are also not taking these increased restrictions, caliber restrictions and things like that lying down. Let’s hope that we can see a bit of a change in the atmosphere with regard to these specific issues. But more generally, David, I think you’d probably agree, a change in our culture back towards a more rugged individualism and a sense of being able to stand on our own two feet and look after each other.

[From video]

We certainly are. I mean, there is some sinister parts with this legislation. I’m not sure if you’d even be aware. In Western Australia, you have to, and I’m sure in a lot of other states, you have to be declared by the police, not by parliament, a fit and proper person to hold that license. and they have actually put into the act that this can be withdrawn based on your I’ll get the words correct attitude views and opinions. Now this is a this is a Chinese social credit system where if you speak out you will be censored and your rights will be removed. [End video]

Yeah.

[From video]

And if this doesn’t go challenged in Western Australia it will be in Queensland next week. It’ll be nationwide very very soon. Yeah, it’s time for Australians to say no government, you’ve gone too far. [End video]

Well, as an anecdote to to buttress your point there, we do have a similar thing in Victoria and I was of course a part of the the anti-lockdown protest etc. that happened in Victoria during co and what we saw was police profiling people, identifying people using facial recognition and then actually going and confiscating their guns and taking away their gun licenses because simply having shown up with a placard to a peaceful and I cannot stress that enough a peaceful nonviolent protest against covid lockdowns was enough for the police to withdraw their permission for these people to be lawful firearms owners. So your your concerns being expressed there, David, are not at all unfounded. This is something that we we we know will be abused by governments when they have the chance. Well, I wish more strength to your arm. I trust everyone in WA and especially in Perth, but in WA more generally, if you can get there, please get there. This is an incredibly important battle. And David, thank you for looking around and saying, well, someone needs to do something and then stepping up to be that someone.

[From video]

No worries, Topher. And I appreciate your time with us. And once again, please, West Australians, this is your time. This is your chance. Be strong. Don’t be intimidated by what is effectively becoming a police state where police write the the rules. They write the law. This is against democracy. This is your time to be there at Parliament on Thursday. Look forward to seeing you all there. [End video]

Well, David, thank you so much for joining me on the Topher project.

[From video] Thank you, Topher. [End video]

That was David Finney. I encourage you to get along to that event if you’re in Western Australia and you can get down to Parliament House on Thursday. My name is Topher Field. This is the Topher project. Thank you so much for watching. I am 100% viewer supported. Please help to keep the Topher project going by buying me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. Check out all of my books, my DVDs, and my merch from goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com.

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