NATIONAL HANDGUN BUYBACK BILL 2003

28th May 03

Mr ORGAN (Cunningham) (6.29 p.m.) —The National Handgun Buyback Bill 2003 seeks to appropriate funding for a national hand gun buyback program commencing on 1 July 2003. The Greens support the idea of such a program but believe it is destined to fail for a variety of reasons. We support the government's aim to improve public safety by attempting to remove from the community the dangers presented by semiautomatic hand guns. However, while this bill goes part of the way towards achieving this end, it will unfortunately only reduce the risk to the community to a limited extent. Indeed, the National Coalition for Gun Control is calling the government's buyback scheme a waste of time and money. While the Greens do not entirely agree with this statement, we recognise that the proposed buyback has severe limitations.

This bill arose out of the tragic event that took place at Monash University on 21 October 2002, resulting in the deaths of two people and the wounding of five. Many more lives were traumatised in connection with this incident. As a result of this tragedy, the Prime Minister announced a proposal to further strengthen gun laws in Australia in cooperation with the states and territories. During question time the day after the shootings at Monash, the Prime Minister said that there was independent evidence suggesting that the federal gun buyback scheme that followed the Port Arthur tragedy had successfully reduced the murder rate involving guns in Australia.

The Greens have always supported and will always support the banning of guns and dangerous weapons, as we believe that this is one of the ways in which we can protect our communities from violence. This bill seeks to remove from the community some of those hand guns that are not used in genuine sports shooting. I wish to draw a clear distinction between the interests of gun owners generally and sporting shooters more specifically. The interests of genuine sporting shooters should be taken into account. The rights and interests of gun owners who are not genuine sporting shooters should be secondary to the long-term safety of the whole community. The safety of the community is paramount. We support the government in this attempt towards lessening the availability of hand guns in the community. However, we are of the firm view that this proposed legislation represents a compromise that inexcusably and unacceptably jeopardises the safety of the community.

The National Coalition for Gun Control claims that the proposal developed by the Council of Australian Governments last November will not reduce the number of semiautomatic, military style hand guns in the community, but will merely reduce the types of semiautomatic hand guns in our community. The buyback initiated in 1996 successfully reduced the numbers of high powered, semiautomatic firearms in Australia. However, this current proposal will simply act as a means of gun owners trading one type of semiautomatic weapon for another. The government is only banning certain models of semiautomatic, military style hand guns. Two hundred and fifty hand gun models will be banned. However, 850 will remain legal. Under this proposal, the banned hand guns will be handed in in exchange for monetary compensation. This monetary compensation can then be used to buy any of the other 850 semiautomatic hand gun models that will remain legal. When the buyback scheme is activated, many gun owners will most likely trade their shorter barrel hand guns for something with a longer and more accurate barrel length. As the National Coalition for gun control stated in their press release today:

The new legislation will be a waste of money and resources and should not be considered a buyback but a trading post for hand gun owners to trade in their old, unpopular hand gun for a newer, more macho model.

The Greens are concerned that this proposed hand gun buyback will fail to make any impact on reducing hand gun violence in our community. Most illegal guns start out as legal weapons which are then stolen—like Kerry Packer's gun, which was stolen from his office. The government has congratulated itself for acting to address the tragedy of the Monash University shooting and deal with the threat posed by the misuse of legally registered hand guns. We are concerned that semiautomatic hand guns that have been excluded from the banned list include models that the perpetrator of the Monash shootings owned. The community deserves an explanation as to why this is the case. The poll taken after the Monash University shootings indicated that there is 83 per cent support for the banning of semiautomatic hand guns in Australia. I call on the government to finish the job that it began in 1996 after the Port Arthur massacre and to ban all semiautomatic firearms. There are well over 150,000 legal hand guns in Australia, and the proposed hand gun ban will leave many of them fully legal. Each state government was meant to have legislation in place by July to support and implement this hand gun buyback scheme. As yet, Victoria is the only state to do so.

The Prime Minister must get tough with the states and make sure semiautomatic handguns get the same treatment that semiautomatic rifles received after the Port Arthur massacre. Following that tragic episode in our history, the Australian Institute of Criminology issued a report which found that the national gun buyback scheme significantly helped cut the number of murders involving firearms. Six hundred and forty-two thousand firearms were handed in during the one-year gun control program introduced after the April 1996 Port Arthur massacre of 35 people by gunman Martin Bryant. The federal government spent half a billion dollars in compensation for that scheme, which aimed to diminish the number of self-loading and pump action rifles similar to that used at Port Arthur.

The Treasurer has been quoted as saying the gun control measures have saved lives. He said:

Prior to the Port Arthur massacre, almost unseen and invisibly a gun culture had been developing in this country, a gun culture which, but for that awful tragedy, would have been unchecked, would have grown so strong it would have been in an invincible position.

After the gun buyback scheme post the Port Arthur massacre, there was a consequence that no-one predicted: an increasing availability of hand guns, which have become the criminals' weapon of choice in shootings, murders and armed robberies. With this point in mind, unless the government takes a tougher stand on hand guns, the supposed ban on semiautomatic hand guns announced last year is headed for failure, and the Australian public will witness further tragedies at the hands of licensed semiautomatic hand guns owners. As the National Coalition for Gun Control has pointed out, a weak government acts once an incident has happened; a strong government acts before a tragedy occurs.