Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Hansard source

We've all gone over many aspects of the reaction of this government to the Bondi massacre—gun laws and what they've done. It was only touched on very briefly at the time, but the effects are coming through now on the gel blaster industry and a sporting competition that happens in Queensland very strongly throughout the area. They were designated as skirmish markers for the first time in legislation. I'm sure that one of the great responses that we want to a terrorist attack is stopping gel blasters! That will stop it! Imagine if the two Islamic terrorists had been armed with gel blasters! They could have put serious welts on the people that they were harming!

This is the reaction of this government to stop it. We're stopping a sport in Queensland because of a designation as skirmish markers. I'm sure we all feel safer walking the streets today because we can't buy a skirmish marker or a paint gel bomb. Now each individual aspect has to be imported into Australia after getting police certification for a magazine for a gun-looking device or anything that shoots gel, a small microbead that takes water. These things were named Orbeez and craft beads historically, but now they are a weapon that has to be signified and tested by police to get there. This whole sport is facing import restrictions and shortages of goods—all this as a reaction because this wasn't a gun law to stop terrorist attacks in Australia. We aren't preventing this. It was a gun law to stop guns.

It was every gun law ever thought of in the top drawer of any bureaucrat. Bring it out and put it in. Remember the one saying that no clothing can have more than 30 rounds? That was one of the things they brought out. My wranglers can hold more than 22 bullets, so are we going to stop importing wranglers because we're doing this? This is another overreach that this government always does in reaction to be seen to be doing something whether it's effective or not. Just do something. We couldn't have shooting vests for our Olympic shooters. We can't bring wranglers in, apparently, because they can hold 22 rounds. And now we can't bring in craft beads without them getting tested by police, certified and imported, because they belong in gel blasters.