Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

That is precisely why we need the legislation that you seem to wish to oppose. That is precisely one of the reasons why we need this legislation. Look, I understand the constituency and the communities that you seek to represent, and you are right—there are many decent law-abiding gun owners. But we also know that we have more guns now in our country than after the Port Arthur reforms were in place. We know, as I said earlier, that if we had stricter gun laws in the shape that have come into this chamber then the two gunmen responsible are likely to have been unable to obtain a weapon. So what I would say to you is, yes, it is worth doing; it is worth regulating. David Meagher, the brother of the police officer who was killed, Peter Meagher, has made some comments and I will refer to them in my next answer.