As sure as night follows day, the Liberal Party sells firearm owners out again:

“The state Liberal government’s controversial proposal would have doubled the duration of some gun licences and made weapons such as pump-action shotguns more readily available. The policy was designed in the lead-up to the March state election but only became public on election eve.

 On Friday, it was abandoned by Premier Will Hodgman.

“This is an area of some public interest to Tasmanians given our history, given the fact that many people are concerned about public safety issues,” he said. ”We will not pursue the policy proposals that we have previously put forward.”

Naturally, the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association were upset:

“Tasmanian farmers have urged people in Sandy Bay to witness the impact of browsing animals on agricultural land in light of the State Government’s decision to scrap plans to provide farm workers with greater access to guns.

President of the Tasmanian Farmers and Grazier’s Association Wayne Johnston said profits were being eroded every night as native animals like wallabies grazed on pastures.

“It would probably be good if we had an industry where we could actually use our browsing animals, but again being native animals, that’s probably not something that the people in Sandy Bay like to hear,” he said.

“But it would be good for some of those people to come out and see what’s happening on the farm and see what pressure we’re under.”

Spot on. This is the same Liberal Party that are feigning outrage over the farming disaster taking place in NSW, but are now telling farmers in Tasmania to get stuffed.

Let’s be honest, they were never going to deliver. This is the Liberal Party after all, the ones that were responsible for the treachery of 1996, 2002, the Adler and the rest. They are no friend of firearm owners: the only difference between themselves and Labor/Greens is they pretend to be your friend while they are sticking the knife into your back.

That doesn’t mean that we should not have tried. FOU and many others submitted to the firearm inquiry and will continue to push for the changes that were proposed.

However, all is not what it seems.

FOU has since learned that the main culprit allegedly responsible for this latest LNP betrayal, is none other than Speaker Sue Hickey.

Two sources inside the government have told FOU that Labor and Greens’ MP’s approached Hickey several weeks ago, asking her to oppose and block the proposals by the Hodgman government.

Hickey has since withdrawn her support for the Inquiry and threatened the LNP that she will not support the government on future legislation as Speaker, if Hodgman follows through with the proposed changes. Therefore, Hodgman wussed out and the latest withdrawal is what we have now.

If you’re in doubt as to Hickey’s political leanings then read on:

“Ms Hickey, however, has said she will “mostly” vote with the Government, assessing bills “on their merit”.

She has also said she will not attend Liberal Party meetings. With the Liberals holding a one-seat majority in the House, Ms Hickey’s vote is the decider on any legislation if Labor and the Greens take the same side.

All of this and the 49th Tasmanian Parliament is only a week old, with Ms Hickey’s Liberal colleagues left in no doubt she is unafraid of a stoush — something amply reinforced this week after she accepted a nomination from Labor and the Greens to stand for the role of Speaker, winning the vote and infuriating her fellow Liberals, none more so that veteran Rene Hidding, who was the party’s pick. Ms Hickey once called the police following an altercation with Elise Archer at public food festival.

And then:

“Ms Hickey, 60, is known to be socially progressive and sometimes left-wing by Liberal standards. She has a business background and appears to support many Liberal policies.

She vigorously backed the Liberals’ election policy on gaming, telling the ABC last year that she believed gambling was a choice. However, she does seem out of step with her Liberal colleagues on some issues. As lord mayor she advocated for Australia Day to move to a different date, something Premier Will Hodgman does not support.

As mayor of Hobart, Ms Hickey refused to lower the rainbow flag until marriage equality passed into law, enraging Tasmanian Liberal Party heavyweight Eric Abetz who wrote directly to Ms Hickey.

In 2016, Ms Hickey struck trouble after weighing in on the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) proposal to transform an industrial site at Macquarie Point into a cultural precinct highlighting Tasmania’s troubled Aboriginal history”.

Essentially, she’s a Green in LNP clothing. It also looks like she’s just another high-maintenance political narcissist in it for herself, but that’s just par for the course.

Labor, the Greens and the LNP have again colluded to shut down firearm reform in Australia. While this is not surprising it just further shows that being pro-civilian disarmament is tri-partisan.

Knifings seem to be the order of the day in the LNP at the moment, and if Will Hodgman has any cajones, he’d promptly show the exit door to Sue Hickey.

We’ll keep saying it: if you are a gun owner and are still voting Labor, Coalition or Greens then hand your firearms in now. LAFO’s don’t let LAFO’s vote Liberal.

Sue Hickey might want to do some “speaking” right about now.