Mr BOURMAN (Eastern Victoria) — I have got some really tough acts to follow. I thank the President and the members of this chamber.

Today I have the honour of making my first address to the 58th Parliament. My journey to this place has been one of changes, learning and finally awakening to the fact that someone needed to make a stand. Originally I was going to copy a Hightower speech from the movie Police Academy, but I have been told 'Thanks' is not an acceptable speech. So here I go.

There is a long list of people I need to thank, and I apologise to anyone I miss. Firstly, and most of all, I would like to thank my wife, Nicole Bourman, without whom this honour would not have been possible. I got unwavering support and assistance from Nicole every time I needed it. I also have to thank Robert Brown and Robert Borsak of the Shooters and Fishers Party in New South Wales for providing me with motivation and invaluable help during the whole process — even at the expense of seeing Robert Brown's Hawaiian shirts! The whole Shooters and Fishers Party NSW team guided and sometimes shoved me in the right direction. In particular Tim Horan was there when we needed him most, just up to and just after the election. Without Tim we would have been adrift.

I also have to thank my parents, Clare and Graham Bourman, my mother-in-law, Sima Garfield, my brother and sister-in-law, Gary and Jane Bourman, my sister and brother-in-law, Kate and Warren Birthisel, and the rest of my family who put up with me for the last 47 years.

Nicole's father, Sima's husband, George, died when Nicole was a small child. George and Sima were caught up in the Holocaust of the 1930s and 1940s. This gives a very human face to something that happened and something we should never allow to happen again.

I would like to thank the previous government for all the assistance they have given shooters and fishers of this state — not the party — and the current government, which so far has been fulfilling election promises such as Lake Toolondo, and I hope to see this continue. Lastly, and definitely not least, I have to thank the people of Eastern Victoria Region for electing me to this Parliament.

The Shooters and Fishers Party started in New South Wales in 1992 as the Shooters Party, and in 1995 had its first elected member, John Tingle. Soon there were two members of the Shooters Party in the NSW upper house, the late Roy Smith and Robert Brown. When Roy died suddenly in 2010, Robert Borsak was appointed to fill the vacancy. In 2013 Rick Mazza was elected to the upper house in Western Australia, and both Dan Young and I were elected late last year. This shows that the Shooters and Fishers Party is growing and that we have the support of shooters, fishers, four-wheel drivers, campers, rural residents and others who are interested in what we do.

A little bit about myself: I was born as a Royal Australian Air Force brat in Queensland in 1967. In the early years I never really called anywhere home. A short list of where I lived looks like this: born Ipswich, Queensland; moved to Sale, Victoria; moved to Laverton, Victoria; moved to Williamtown, New South Wales; moved to Malaysia; moved to Canberra; moved to Wimmera, north-central Victoria, where my family started goat farming; and then moved to Melbourne. Then I finished high school in 1984, gaining my higher school certificate, much to everyone's surprise, particularly mine.

I was really a little aimless in the first part of my working life and did not pursue any real direction. From the time I had returned from Malaysia I wore extremely thick eyeglasses. I hated them with a passion, but I could not wear contact lenses. Through my father's contacts, I found out about a revolutionary medical procedure called laser eye surgery. It was still considered experimental at that stage, and for no other reason than I hated wearing glasses I decided to have it. To say my life changed after that is understating it. I was reading a newspaper one day — without my glasses — and noticed a small ad for Victoria Police. I had never considered anything like that due to having to wear my glasses. I applied, went through the process and on 29 April 1996 I started at the Victoria Police Academy in Glen Waverley.

Going through the academy was nothing like anything I had ever experienced. It was particularly tough compared to anything I had done before. I eventually adjusted to the new life and graduated from squad 10 of 1996 as a probationary constable. In the next nearly four years I learnt a lot about justice, human nature and society — and not all of it pleasant. I was introduced to the reality of violence in society and the scourge of domestic violence. For a police officer, domestic violence is a daily reality, and despite the seemingly easy solutions, it is a complex and difficult issue for which there is no panacea. For me there was one recurring theme, though, and that is the fact that all the offenders — and, yes, I call them offenders — were bullies. Once someone who could fight back arrived, the violence stopped. I fully support any initiative that takes a meaningful step towards dealing with domestic violence — no politics, no platitudes, just real efforts to deal with it.

I was also introduced to the reality of policing with the murders of Gary Silk and Rod Miller in 1998. I had worked with Gary for a short time and remember him as unusual in that he was helpful and supportive towards a trainee. Not everyone of rank was like that. The murders of Gary and Rod underlined that policing is a very dangerous task and is underappreciated in society, as are all the emergency services.

I had changed greatly as a person by the time I left Victoria Police on 1 January 2000. I had become confident and clear in my direction, or so I thought, and decided that as much as I loved the job of policing, it was not for me in that climate. I had also met and married my wife, Nicole Bourman, and my life had fundamentally changed.

I met Nicole at the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia range in Springvale in late 1997. I had finished my pistol shooting for the night and had ordered dinner. I was off to wash my hands when I was asked to show two visitors how to shoot. I took them off to shoot, and after a while I mentioned that there was another range used by the federal police that we could use and that had closer targets. The next day Nicole turned up to shoot, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Information technology was the future. Those who remember the year 2000 boom will also remember that on 1 January 2000 — the date I left the force, when nothing went wrong and the world did not collapse — the boom busted. The next couple of years were a struggle, and eventually I did get a good job in a medium size company where I learned the ins and outs of IT and, more importantly, how to deal with senior management on a professional level. I moved on from there and started contracting again. It was also at that time that I started to go fishing as a stress release. It really did not matter whether I caught anything or not; I enjoyed sitting there with Nicole, bait in the water. I just enjoyed being there, which is pretty fortunate, as I caught three fish over two years, one being on Nicole's rod, which she has not let me forget. I have fished before; however, as my count over two years may indicate, I may love it but I am not good at it.

It was in the next period of contracting that I started my political awakening. I had always been peripherally aware of politics, though I had never really decided to become involved in any meaningful fashion. As a younger person I was generally on the conservative side of politics, but the happenings of 1996, when John Howard forced the states to comply with his personal wish, cured me of that. Upon reassessing my thoughts and beliefs I drifted towards the centre of the spectrum.

The first time I can remember holding a rifle was when I was eight, just prior to my father's posting to Malaysia. At a friend's farm in New South Wales I got to hold a .22 rifle. Once we were back from Malaysia I went to my grandfather's farm in Eaglehawk and went rabbit shooting, with no success, and I also went shooting at another friend's farm near Braidwood, with the same amount of success. But I was hooked.

My dad retired from the air force and we moved to a farm outside of Stuart Mill in the Wimmera/north central region. At about the age of 14 this shaped my future. I loved everything to do with the farm. I learnt to drive, I learnt to shoot safely and responsibly, and I learnt just how hard life can be for some rural folk. I also learnt to love the bush, rural areas and just the people in general. My line of work and family responsibilities mean that I have to live in suburbia. This has also taught me that the continuing urbanisation of our society has not helped people in rural communities.

In the time since I started shooting, which is now nearly 34 years, I have seen the appalling spectacle of tragedy exploited to further the aims of a tiny yet vocal group of people opposed to the private ownership of firearms. Having had some experience in law enforcement, I can appreciate the need for effective laws regarding firearms. I cannot see the need, nor even want to, to restrict those who obey the law. By definition, criminals will not obey the law but the law-abiding will. Not everyone should have firearms. There needs to be a robust licensing process to ensure that people wanting to legally own firearms are fit and proper persons to possess them. What the law should not do is penalise with undue red tape, undue restrictions and constant demonisation of those who are not posing the risk. Laws should not be weak or strong; they should be effective. These laws should be stopping criminals from getting firearms or punishing them severely if they illegally possess or use them.

Restrictions that do nothing to fight crime can be in the form of direct restrictions, such as the re-categorisation of firearms to make it near impossible for a properly licensed and responsible shooter to own a .22 long rifle semiautomatic. These rifles have been the mainstay of farmers and sporting shooters for decades, and yet they were effectively banned in one fell swoop. We have seen as recently as last week that due to an administrative error in 1996 some people who technically fell outside the requirements for a category C licence have had these licences, and associated guns, for 19 years, yet nothing went wrong. That alone makes the effectiveness of our current system questionable.

Restrictions can also be indirect, such as the changing of a state forest to a national park. This effectively stops shooting other than in some circumstances and only of certain species. These restrictions do not just apply to shooters. Owners of four-wheel drives feel the effect of track closures and campers feel the effect of unreasonable fees and booking systems for what was once available on a free and a first come, first served basis. Even fishers feel the effects of declarations of marine parks, which shut out all fishing.

There is a, hopefully unintended, consequence of these restrictions: the loss of revenue to rural businesses. People who shoot, fish, four-wheel drive and camp all buy petrol, food and other items from rural businesses. In fact it was recently estimated that the income to the state from hunting alone was in excess of $350 million annually. Add the rest of the outdoor activities and that is a major positive financial impact. I have also seen estimates that fishing brings in around $822 million a year to this state. We are talking about a real and very substantial segment of our economy.

The urbanisation of Australia is a fact. That does not mean that people in rural areas can be treated in the same way as city folk. Rural issues need different consideration from city issues. Unemployment is a huge issue in rural towns, where the closure of one small business has a ripple effect through an entire community. One hundred jobs lost in a city of nearly 5 million people does not show much on a graph, but 100 jobs lost in a town of 10 000 is a tragedy, with the likelihood of being re-employed a lot less.

After a while it became apparent that the efforts of the anti-gunners to remove firearms from the law-abiding, legal and responsible gun owners was never going to stop. Despite evidence to show that the continual harassment of the law abiding was doing nothing to combat crime, the relentless attacks go on.

Now we get to my journey here. I was reading an internet forum, Australian Hunting Net, when I noticed there were two MLCs, the previously mentioned Robert Borsak and Robert Brown of the Shooters and Fishers Party, posting from time to time. I paid attention to them and the party platform, and over time I liked enough of what I saw to join the party just as a show of support. Soon I decided I needed to do more.

I contacted the Shooters and Fishers Party in New South Wales and, after meeting the two Roberts, we all decided we would get the Victorian branch up and running. The next 12 months or so, particularly the last six months, were a blur of constant phone calls, events, trips and emails to get people interested in protecting the rights of law-abiding shooters and fishers to join the party. Two weeks before the election was called we got registered. Tick-tock, the clock was running and time was running out, but we beat it.

It was all due to the hard work of numerous people, but those who deserve special mention are our election committee members: Megan Winter, Paul McArd, Dave Fent, Chris Tzelepis, Steve Zoumis, and of course Daniel Young. Due to the hard work and dedication of the committee and all our volunteers and supporters, Daniel and I are now both proud members of the 58th Parliament of Victoria.

We are here to be a voice for common sense. We are here to do our best to represent those who supported and elected us. Most importantly of all, we are here.