Page 1108 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 May 2020
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no matter how big or how small, no matter what sport or recreational pursuit. We want everyone to reap the benefits of sports tourism: the hotel and hospitality sectors, local transport services and local tourist attractions—all businesses. We understand that the more sporting events there are here, the better it is for everyone.
Another key driver of find your game is to enjoy the great outdoors. The Canberra Liberals want everyone to have the opportunity to maximise the amazing outdoor environment we have here: our lakes, our parks, our wetlands and our mountain ranges. This is another reason that sports like modern pentathlon and biathlon are so keen to have more opportunities here. We are blessed with many natural resources that provide the perfect environment for their sports.
That is why these changes to the Firearms Act are important. They are an easy policy lever that can be pulled to open up access and make participation in these sports easier. I hope that this means that the attitude to easing restrictions may apply to other sports that suffer from excessive regulation.
Last, but not least, one of the primary drivers behind find your game is to bring back the fun. For too long Canberra has been a town where the answer quite often has been “no”. The Canberra Liberals want to change that. We want to look for more ways to say yes. We want to say yes to fun events like the Birdman Rally; yes to more national and interstate competitions; and yes to more local sport and recreation.
Mr Assistant Speaker, I am pleased to support these changes. They are surprisingly positive. The Canberra Liberals will support these measures, as they provide a more flexible, fairer approach to the ownership and use of laser firearms for sports.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong) (4.25): The ACT Greens will be supporting the bill that is being considered in the chamber today. The bill amends the laws regulating firearms and weapons in the ACT to support legitimate activities of biathletes, pentathletes and commonwealth aviation security inspectors. As the explanatory statement clearly outlines, this bill will have positive impacts on public safety and the sporting community in the ACT, and has been developed following stakeholder consultation.
The bill supports increased systemic security tests for passenger, staff and goods screening points at Canberra Airport. These tests strengthen overall public safety at Canberra Airport and are sensible in as much as they allow aviation security inspectors, as defined in the commonwealth Aviation Transport Security Act 2004, to be exempt from the requirement to have a permit to possess and use an imitation firearm in the exercise of their functions.
With regard to the exemptions for biathletes and pentathletes, as the explanatory statement notes, the bill includes an exemption for participants, athletes, coaches and officials of a biathlon or modern pentathlon from the requirement to obtain a permit for their laser target shooting devices. This is intended to support the genuine needs of those sporting communities, assist with promoting the sport and support young athletes becoming involved in the sport.
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