Found this on another forum and think it should be posted widely including at NE.com

Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 5:16 PM
Subject: FW: Important information on Government proposal to prohibit compound hunting bows

To all,

I hope that all of you are aware of this. You can bet this has arisen from Rye. Please pass it on to the relevant people. ABA, AAA and 3D AAA will need to lobby the Police Ministers on this, especially Senatory Ellinson, Federal Customs Minister and Attorney General I believe.

I will pass this email on to the Shooting Sports Council of Victoria.

Dennis La Varenne

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart.Atkins@ipaustralia.gov.au [mailto:Stuart.Atkins@ipaustralia.gov.au]
Sent: Monday, 22 December 2003 4:43 PM
Subject: Important information on Government proposal to prohibit compound hunting bows

Dear Archery Associations.

This year the Australian Police Ministers Council and officials from the Federal Attorney General's Department has been reviewing the regulation of the use of crossbows within Australia. Crossbow Australia has been following this review and making submissions on this issue to the Council and Police Ministers. As part of this process we have been consulting with the Attorney General's Department on the outcomes of each Council meeting.

At the November 2003 Council meeting, Police Ministers raised a new issue that I believe you should be informed about. The Police Ministers have requested an investigation of the merits of prohibiting the use of compound hunting bows.

In view of the seriousness of this issue I arranged to discuss this issue with officials from the Attorney General's Department on 8 December 2003 to find out more information on this review. Let me say from the outset, that neither I nor Crossbow Australia in discussing this issue with the Attorney General's Department intend to represent the interests of the other national archery organisations concerned but rather to find out initial information for distribution to you so you can be aware of the matter and act accordingly. However, I will continue to discuss these issues with the relevant officials on behalf of my organisation and my club.

My discussions were as follows. I provided copies of commercial brochures so that they could see what types of bows (recurve, compound and longbows) are on the market at present. Through these brochures I pointed out the differences (or lack there-of) between hunting and non-hunting bows. I explained that in many cases the differences are merely the paint schemes. I also explained that hunting was conducted using all types of bows not just compound bows. I also provided them with our summary of current legislative provisions that govern archery within Australia to assist them understand how some States regulate bows and hunting.

It is not easy to see what will be the outcome of this review. They may recommend that there is no merit in restricting the use of compound bows for hunting or they may go to the other extreme of recommending all bow use to be subject to some form of licence or even the use of bows for hunting be regulated.

Next steps. The Firearms Policy Group will be meeting in March 2004 to discuss this issue and report back to the Police Ministers at their July 2004 meeting. This group includes the managers of the various State/Territory Firearms Registries. You might want to discuss this matter with them or the Police Minister in your State/Territory. If you want to contact the Attorney-General's Department their contact person is: Melinda Cockshutt, Firearms, Criminal Justice Division, Robert Garran Offices, National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600.

I will leave it to each organisation to decide how it wants to manage this issue on behalf of your members.

Yours sincerely

Stuart Atkins
Vice President
Crossbow Australia