The Greens have serious concerns about the Liberals’ firearms reform legislation, tabled to Parliament. The Liberals have failed to draft the firearms reforms Tasmania needs, so we’ll work across the Parliament and with advocates to make the many necessary changes for public safety.
We had expected the bill tabled in Parliament to fall short of community safety needs, and require heavy amendments, but what the Police Minister delivered is an absolute shame.
Even after just flicking through it briefly, we have serious questions. We’ll be taking a good look at clauses around grandfathering, reclassification of firearms, mandatory sentencing, and many others we have concerns about.
It appears proposals around antique firearms have also been slipped into the bill. Is this Minister Ellis once again defying the advice of the Police Commissioner?
It’s very clear that this Police Minister doesn’t understand that public safety should be at the heart of his role, not pandering to the gun owners.
Labor have promised they’ll move for caps on firearms, and the Greens will support them. It’s a fact that when there are more firearms in the community that they’re more likely to fall into the wrong hands and endanger public safety.
We’ll be sitting down with members across the Parliament and the firearms reform sector to talk about this bill and desperately needed public safety measures. If the Liberals aren’t going to do it, we’ll do our best to do so.
