Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to point out to the House that law-abiding, gun-owning farmers, sporting shooters, recreational shooters, hunters and people who like to get out in the bush and do a bit of target practice are being scapegoated by this government. In the electorate of O'Connor we have many gun owners. We've heard from government members today that—shock, horror—there are four million guns in this country; that's seven people for every one gun. Well, I can tell you that, in the electorate of O'Connor, that ratio would be far higher. Yet, when I think back on my 13 years as the member for O'Connor and how many terrorist attacks there have been in the electorate of O'Connor, that number is zero. When I think back on any serious gun crimes that have taken place in my electorate of O'Connor in 13 years, the number is zero. That would suggest, to me, that it's not the guns or the number of guns that are the problem.

An additional factor for Western Australians in this debate is that we have just been through a gun buyback scheme conducted by the Western Australian government. As a licensed gun owner myself, I found that process quite traumatic. My dealings with the police department made me feel as if I was a suspected criminal. Many people contacted me—even though I'm a federal member and this was state legislation—about how intimidating and difficult that process was for them. They are now going to be subjected to that process a second time. This ramps up what the Western Australian government did.

I'm very disappointed that the member for Hunter isn't here to talk about what he thinks about making vests illegal. The vests that clay target shooters and other shooters, including pistol shooters, wear as a matter of course as part of their sport will now be deemed to be illegal and punishable by a jail sentence of up to five years. Reloading—which is par for the course for sporting shooters, to reload their own ammunition—will now be punished by up to five years in prison. I conclude today by saying that I strongly oppose the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Firearms and Customs Laws) Bill 2026, and I will always fight for the rights of law-abiding citizens in my electorate of O'Connor.

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