Ms BADGER question to PREMIER, Mr ROCKLIFF
[10.08 a.m.]
The Police Commissioner, Police Association, Labor, the Greens, many Independents and the majority of the community want Tasmania to fully participate in the national firearms buy-back scheme, including by capping individual ownership. The Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has recognised a firearms cap as critical to the national buy-back scheme and recommended all states and territories get on board. While you and your colleagues have argued against a cap due to its impact on licence holders, the royal commission has directly called out that line of argument, stating,
… the use of licenced firearms in the attack at Bondi, as with many previous attacks and mass casualty shootings, highlights the risks inherent in the availability of firearms.
Off the back of the royal commission’s interim report and recommendation, will you reconsider your position on firearms caps?
ANSWER
Honourable Speaker, I thank the honourable member for your question. Once again, I offer my condolences to those that lost their lives and continue to grieve as a result of the Bondi attack.
We have a very clear position when it comes to firearm reform in Tasmania as a government and that is a range of areas which were spoken about, including the targeting of criminals, first and foremost. We also have a buy-back scheme that provides additional incentives to reduce the number of firearms in the community. For the type of firearm that was used in the Bondi attack, we are recategorising to category C, amongst other important initiatives when it comes to firearm reform, firearm safety and community safety.
Our position is clear. My understanding is that while we, as a state, are embarking on buy-backs, we have other states such as Queensland and the Northern Territory who are not participating in the buyback scheme. I also understand that neither Victorian or South Australian Labor governments have made a position on firearm reform, to this point.
I believe we can work well with the federal government when it comes to a buy-back scheme for Tasmania to incentivise people voluntarily handing over their firearms and, therefore, reducing the number of firearms within the community.
What we need to be very vigilant on, though, is to ensure that we put increased effort on people that steal firearms or are in the possession of stolen firearms, and that should be our focus. We believe we’ve got a very balanced approach, where we allow our law abiding firearm owners across Tasmania, those engaged in recreational hunting, those engaged in sporting shooter organisations or those engaged in primary production that utilise firearms to support their primary production operations.
We’re continuing to work with the federal government and look forward to reaching an agreement.
