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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 5 (Hansard) 16 May) . . Page.. 1398 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

improve a Bill that had been successfully put up in 1991 by the Police Minister, Michael Weldon, regulating the use and possession of guns. Christine Milne's objective was to pass authority for the regulation of prohibited guns from the Police Minister to the Commissioner of Police because the Police Minister had failed to use the power to outlaw automatic or semiautomatic weapons. That Bill was also rejected.

"Why did Port Arthur have to happen?", we wonder. In New South Wales, in May 1994, the Health Department commissioned a State-wide survey. To the question "Do you agree or disagree that in towns all guns should be stored in secure places away from home, for example, at a police station?", 70 per cent said yes. What has to happen before the quiet and less obvious but just as deadly and horrific individual or family group shootings which regularly occur reach our consciousness enough for us to enact strong regulation in this area of weapon ownership as well? In Australia, guns will most likely kill a woman or a child every fortnight over the coming year and about nine others will die every week as a result of a gun-related suicide. A further one person per fortnight will die as a result of a gun-related accident. Over four years, about 90 people were killed by guns in domestic violence incidents.

While I reiterate our endorsement for this legislation the Government is bringing forward, it is unfortunate that only one in 10 gun-related homicides involves semiautomatic or automatic weapons. In other words, these new gun laws are only a step in the right direction of gun law reform. I have suggested to Mr Humphries that he could look at a couple of ways to tighten up what he has proposed, and he has expressed some interest in them. For example, in regard to relicensing after a maximum of five years, safety training could be given each time a licence is renewed. Sometimes through familiarity or people not using guns, very often these factors can be forgotten. It is always useful, when dealing with a gun, to be reminded of the dangers and of the need for extreme caution and for safety precautions always to be taken. There is a long way to go, and I can assure members of this Assembly that the Greens will actively pursue the issue of tightening up gun laws in the Territory for the remainder of our time here.

MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Training) (5.07): Mr Speaker, as someone who assisted the then Attorney-General, Bernard Collaery, back in about 1990 to bring in our legislation, which certainly up until now has been the strongest in the country, I would like to say a few words. Firstly, I commend my colleague the Attorney-General and Police Minister, and indeed all the Australian States and the Prime Minister, on what is really a very historic moment in terms of gun control in Australia. It was a result which I do not think a lot of people could possibly have expected, even after the tragedy in Port Arthur. That has really moved this nation, and a lot of good has come out of that tragic event.

I was horrified personally by it, naturally, more so because my wife and I were down there only a couple of weeks beforehand and those scenes brought it back to me rather vividly. One of the shot survivors of the Port Arthur massacre was a lady who conducted us around on the ghost tour, and I thought, "Gee, that could have been us, that could have been absolutely anyone". The sorts of images that came to my mind obviously came to the minds of many people throughout Australia. Very promptly, my colleague and his colleagues Australia-wide have taken steps to rectify the situation.

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