Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

We're happy to do our own heavy lifting.

Our nation was reminded once again that the forces of hatred, extremism and radical violence are not abstractions; they have real victims, real names and real consequences. The coalition's message has been very clear and consistent: antisemitism, terrorism and hate-fuelled violence in all their forms must be confronted, condemned and defeated.

Making law-abiding firearm owners your scapegoats is very convenient. It allows the Greens to do something they've wanted to do for a long time, but it does not get to the heart of the issue. You've heard a lot from the Labor Party about what the real issue is. The reality is that the coalition called for a royal commission after the Bondi attack so that we could understand how this Islamist had firearms in his home. He should never have had access to firearms under existing laws. We need to find out who knew what and when, and why these firearms weren't removed before 15 innocent Australians had to pay the ultimate price.

This bill seeks to instigate a national gun buyback. We have state and territory governments who have made it very, very clear that they do not see this as an appropriate response.

I'm happy for these to stay in front of me, if you don't mind. We've got the other 60,000 signatures behind us and not being out in front of everyone, so I think we've found an agreement.

I will be moving amendments on behalf of the coalition. These amendments are required to make the proposed buyback more consistent under 1996, a buyback where an agreement was struck on 10 May 1996 that all state and territory jurisdictions agreed to a process to create and amend firearms legislation in so much as this would, for the first time, create consistent and agreed processes that would manage all elements of firearm legislation across Australia, with the states and territories being responsible for various firearm acts and the Commonwealth responsible for changes to the importation and end-user certification. That actually reflects our Constitution.

For the first time since 1996, the federal government has decided to abandon the process that we all agreed to over 25 years ago and which had made us the envy of the world when it came to strict gun laws. They were strict gun laws that still allowed lawful Australians to participate in their sport, farmers to practice animal husbandry, environmentalists to ensure that feral pests were managed and Olympians to win gold medals—of which we're all very proud, but you can't do that if you're not getting young people through the pipeline of this great sport. The advice I have is that if you really want to participate in all of the firearm disciplines available you'd need more than 50 different guns. That's like banning your three iron, your putter and your wedge while trying to get your handicap under 20 in golf.

After two meetings of the state and territory attorneys-general and police ministers, the proposals of the Albanese government were comprehensively rejected by the majority of the signatories to the National Firearms Agreement. Instead of accepting the result of the process—state ministers saying, 'Well, thanks very much for your advice, Mr Albanese, but we've got it from here,' which has been the system for 30 years—the Albanese government has chosen to use the powers of the federal government to prohibit certain firearms by denying import certification, leaving Australia in a situation where a firearm that had previously been approved will now be banned. You're leaving us in a situation where things that have been prohibited by the federal government are still able to be legally owned and purchased in the majority of Australian states and territories. These guys, helped by the Greens, actually don't know how this works.

The National Firearms Agreement, sadly, is an agreement in word only. By trashing this most important agreement, which was arrived at thanks to the leadership of John Howard and Tim Fischer, the future of firearms management in Australia has now been set back many years. Instead of being the envy of the world, we are now the laughing-stock. Real leadership would dictate using the National Firearms Agreement as the agreed pathway forward, and accepting the outcome of that process. And if the majority of states said, 'No, thanks,' then that, I'm sorry, Prime Minister, is how government works. It's how our Constitution works. But here we are, debating a bill which has several flaws, and that is why I will be moving amendments on behalf of the coalition.

With regard to these amendments, there is no detail around this buyback. Which firearms and equipment would be banned by the states? How many guns can a person own? Is there going to be fair market compensation paid to lawful firearm owners? Are the many dealerships that operate around the country, who have millions of dollars worth of stock sitting on the shelves right now that will be unable to be sold or used, going to be fairly compensated? Our Constitution requires for that to happen federally. The amendment sheet that will be circulated will also provide that compensation be available for those business losses.

I will also be moving amendments that require states and territories to give notice by 3 March 2026 if they are going to participate in this gun buyback or not, because when it comes to the state of Victoria and the state of South Australia, both of them are going to state elections. Firearm owners in those states need to know is Jacinta Allan going to throw hundreds of thousands of law-abiding firearm owners, including her husband, under the bus before the election? Is Premier Malinauskas going to tell South Australian firearm owners what he's going to do before his election? Firearm owners deserve transparency on this so that they can put their vote behind the National Party and the Liberal Party, who support their lawful right to hold firearms and to participate in our society lawfully.

Amendment sheet 3595 will seek to delete the proposed ban on assisted repeating and straight-pull repeating firearms. These are not semiautomatic weapons and in most states are subject to a genuine reason process. You can't just walk in and buy one. You've got to have a genuine reason. Senator Little and I were talking about how you don't need a repeating rifle if you're hunting deer. But if you're out hunting feral pigs you do, because one shot and they're all gone. Anyway, it just shows a complete misunderstanding of how firearms are used appropriately in this country.

The amendment on sheet 3597 will prevent a costly administrative and bureaucratic burden on compliance agencies. Currently, licensed gun importers can bring in bulk firearms under a B709DA permit; Labor's bill will require individual permits per item. That's a problem not only for the importers but for Home Affairs and the state agencies which are going to have to assess all these permits. We support the measure that seeks to prohibit the downloading of instructions from a carriage service for 3D printing of illegal and unlawful firearms, but there doesn't seem to be a clear defence for lawful firearm owners to seek information from the internet relating to reloading and spent ammunition or to access to manuals for firearms that the person owns legally.

We need to have a merit review process when it comes to adverse criminal intelligence assessments. Currently, that isn't in the bill. I will be moving an amendment that provides clarity that the provisions in the bill do not effectively ban the import of pistols, which I'm told will have severe and unintended impacts on the elite competition and sport shooting that goes on in clubs right around the country in a very safe and secure environment.

The government originally proposed to impose restrictions on worn equipment, such as shooting vests and cartridge belts—and I'd like to give a huge shout-out to SSAA, and to Beretta Australia, who provided me with a shooting vest yesterday. I was able to say that you're not allowed to have clothing that would allow you to have more than 30 cartridges. There go your Olympic vests! You need to be able to carry over 50 cartridges. After putting that up on the internet, guess what? The government has changed this because firearm owners are saying that this is nonsensical. So thank you to the government for doing that.

The failure to properly distinguish between legal firearms, which are used safely and securely, and the acts of terrorists will demonise over a million people. The petition I'm tabling today involves over 65,000 law-abiding Australians who are standing up to the Labor Party and saying no. I want to make it very, very clear that the coalition supports the firearms registry process. We don't know why we're still waiting for it to be implemented! The government has been in charge of this process for over four years, and yet here we are announcing it as if it's something new. The reality is they didn't put money towards it and that is why it hasn't been seen as a priority. Let's make sure that we can do better next time.

We know the Labor Party's dirty deal with the Greens is a step back. As I have outlined, it is in contravention of the National Firearms Agreement that we all signed up to in 1996. For the Prime Minister to say that he's 'just like John Howard', shows what a mockery this is. John Howard and Tim Fischer took on their own constituency—took on the farmers and took on the sporting shooters, who are typically coalition voters—in an effort to address the mass shooting at Port Arthur. This Prime Minister has failed to take on his own constituency in the Labor Party and in the Western Sydney suburbs. That is the cause of this shooting event.

I move:

Omit all words after "That", substitute "the bill be referred to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 2 March 2026".

This amendment requests that this legislation goes to a Senate inquiry in the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee for four weeks. We need to have the chance for firearm owners to have their say—the National Rifle Association, SIFA, SSAA, the Shooters Union, the Australian Clay Target Association, Target Pistol Australia: all these. Gympie Pistol Club would also like to have a say. Let the people, the experts and our agencies have input into this firearm legislation so that it's not actually harming the people it's supposed to protect. (Time expired)