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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 5 (Hansard) 16 May) . . Page.. 1328 ..

MS FOLLETT (continuing):

Mr Speaker, the reduction of violence in our community will require sacrifice by individuals and by groups in our community. The stringent anti-gun laws, which have the support of all in this Assembly and which we will be debating later today, will require sacrifices to be made by gun dealers, by sporting shooters, perhaps by the rural community, and also, as we now know, by all taxpayers, who will be called upon to fund the compensation arrangements. These sacrifices are essential, in my view, in the name of the greater safety of the whole community. Similarly, if paintball is to be disallowed in our community, there will be those who will be called upon to make a sacrifice. I believe that those sacrifices are worth while in the interest of breaking down the emerging culture of violence.

While I am on the subject of sacrifice, Mr Speaker, I do not know whether other members saw it, but I would like to mention that I was very touched and very encouraged to see on television a number of Tasmanian children giving up their toy guns and their water-pistols. I believe that those children understood that the symbolic gesture that they were making was also a protest against the popular culture of violence in the community. I think, Mr Speaker, that, if it is good enough for those children to make a very real sacrifice, it is good enough for the rest of us. In fact, Mr Speaker, I do not know how anybody could even contemplate, after the massacre at Port Arthur, the notion of a game which involves rampaging around the forests and shooting at people. I would have thought we would have put that kind of so-called entertainment behind us forever.

Mr Speaker, I would like to refer briefly to the regulation that Mr Humphries has introduced. I believe that it does indicate just how serious a matter the proposed introduction of paintball is. First of all, the weapons that are used in paintball are called weapons in this regulation, and special provisions have to be made for their introduction into the Territory. If it were not for the regulation put forward by Mr Humphries, those weapons would be prohibited. So we are talking about a serious piece of equipment. The regulation also involves a range of checks and balances - safeguards, if you will - in the game of paintball. For example, the weapons have to be stored in a secure manner that is approved by the Registrar of Weapons. The weapon can be used only on a paintball range. In other words, if it were to be used in the general community that would be an illegal act, and presumably because the paintball weapons do bear a close resemblance to real killing weapons that is an entirely reasonable provision.

There is also a provision in the regulation that no person under the age of 18 years is allowed to even have such a weapon in their possession, so we are dealing with a fairly serious piece of equipment. There is also a clause in the regulation which says:

(1) The Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, authorise a body to operate a paint pellet range.

(2) The Minister shall not authorise a body under subregulation (1) unless ...

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