Page 2758 - Week 07 - Thursday, 3 July 2008
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I also note that the New South Wales parliament is considering a bill, sponsored by the Shooters Party, that will do away with the 28-day waiting period for licence renewals and permits to acquire a second or subsequent firearm where a person already owns a registered firearm in the same category. The ACT bill confirms that, in the ACT, each licence application is to be considered as a fresh application, thereby ensuring that all the appropriate checks are conducted. As a result, it is the government’s position that the 28-day waiting period will apply for licence renewals.
Applications for permits to acquire a firearm will also be subject to a mandatory 28-day waiting period. This requirement was a feature of the 1996 police ministers resolution to allow police to conduct appropriate checks in order to ascertain whether circumstances have occurred since the issuing of the original licence which would render the licensee unsuitable to possess the firearm or which would render the licensee ineligible for that type of firearm.
I would like to advise members that the ACT Firearms Registry has found the existing cooling-off periods important for the cross-referencing of local and interstate records of criminal convictions. It is also a critical strategy to prevent the rapid stockpiling of weapons by people who may be preparing for an outpouring of violence. Although the inconvenience imposed on individuals purchasing second or subsequent firearms cannot be disputed, the regular screening of firearms licensees is a critical component of a robust and integrated scheme whose principal aims are to protect community safety and ensure that firearms do not fall into the hands of criminals.
It was agreed by all jurisdictions at the Australian Police Ministers Council meeting in July 2002 that the offence of illegal possession of prohibited firearms should attract a substantial penalty. Section 16 of the act currently provides for a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment for illegal possession of a prohibited firearm. The bill increases the penalty for the unauthorised possession or use of firearms to five years imprisonment in the case of possession of one to two firearms, and to 20 years imprisonment in the case of possession of 10 or more firearms. The new penalty will reflect both the seriousness of the offence and the national agreement of police ministers.
The increase in penalties for the unauthorised possession of firearms goes in hand with the changes to the concept of possession in the act. The bill enables possession to apply in circumstances where an illegal firearm is found on premises with a person or persons but there is no actual physical possession of the gun by any person. The act currently makes it an offence for defacing or altering an identifying mark on a firearm and possessing a firearm on which the mark has been altered or defaced. The bill increases the penalty for these offences from one year to five years imprisonment.
Firearms dealers oversee, record and notify the Firearms Registry of each and every exchange of firearms in the ACT. Dealers are, therefore, linchpins in the tracking and lawful registration of firearms in the ACT. Around Australia and in our own jurisdiction, firearms dealers are critical to tracking firearms. They are not part of government yet they oversee the overwhelming bulk of internal firearms transactions in Australia. Firearms dealers are the logical place for organised crime to engage in illegal diversion of firearms.
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