Police Minister Felix Ellis has finally announced the members of his Firearms Consultative Committee, but still hasn’t put a timeline on consultation for nationally proposed reforms. If anything, today’s announcement seems to confirm we’re just in for even more delays.
With other states already committed to and acting on reform, Tasmania is already well behind the eight ball. But rather than getting on with the job, Minister Ellis now says the first meeting of his new consultation committee will be by the end of the month, and still won’t provide a timeline for a decision.
Tasmanians strongly support firearm safety reform and they’re fed up with these delays. What’s particularly concerning about this timeline though is that the Federal Government has made it clear that a commitment from states on these measures is needed by March.
With an apparent majority of his new committee opposed to firearm safety reform, and the committee not set to meet until right before a decision is needed from the State Government, Minister Ellis is quite obviously doing his best to make sure the Rockliff Government takes no new meaningful action.
Clearly the Minister is trying to run down the clock as part of a deliberate strategy to deny the push for critical new firearm safety measures, like caps on ownership and tighter restrictions on classifications.
Tasmania deserves so much better than what we are seeing from Felix Ellis. Premier Jeremy Rockliff needs to intervene and makes sure Tasmania finally commits to real action.
