John Howard’s relief at Port Arthur arrest, then resolve to make sure it never happened again

John Howard has revealed his relief when Port Arthur killer Martin Bryant was caught – as his focus shifted to making sure this never happened again.

Exclusive: Former Prime Minister John Howard has revealed his relief the day the man who committed the Port Arthur massacre was apprehended, recalling that he felt “grateful” when he heard that Martin Bryant had been captured.

Mr Howard, who was sworn in as prime minister just eight weeks before the tragedy, added that he believed he would have would have won a referendum on gun control if states and territories did not follow his lead in implementing a national firearms registration scheme.

Mr Howard’s comments, among the first he has made in years about the 1996 mass murder, came as The Sunday Telegraph made public the new details about Bryant’s bleak life in a Tasmanian prison medical centre.

Former prime minister John Howard was sworn in as prime minister just eight weeks before the Port Arthur massacre tragedy. Picture: Toby Zerna

“I was very grateful that they fairly quickly got the person responsible and there did not appear tot be much doubt about his total guilt,” Mr Howard said.

“From the get go there was a belief that we had found the culprit and that he was going to be dealt with.”

“He had obviously had a difficult background and all of that but that is so often the case with people who commit heinous crimes.”

Mr Howard said that while he was relieved Bryant was caught quickly and that he had no accomplices, his primary focus was on what the federal government could do to prevent a repeat performance.

“In a subtle way we made it known that if we couldn’t get the states to provide the necessary legislation we would seek the powers of a referendum.

John Howard places a wreath at the steps of broad arrow cafe in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre.

“And we would’ve done that, and we would’ve got the power.”

But acknowledged that there were political costs.

In the late 1990s, three-cornered contests between the Liberals, the Nationals and Labor were still common.

He recalls talking to Warren Truss who was fighting to hold his Queensland seat of Wide Bay at the 1998 election against an onslaught from One Nation and the Nationals saying it was “very tough”, an experience that was repeated elsewhere in the nation.

“There was some focused anger, restricted in a geographical sense, anger in some rural communities from quite legitimate farmers who had held weapons for years and they said, ‘geez, this is tough, we haven’t done anything wrong.”

Some of that anger made itself known at a pro-gun rally Mr Howard attended in 1996 in Gippsland, Victoria.

An pro-gun rally on the Gold Coast in 1996. Mr Howard said he was prepared to take his gun law reform to a referendum.

The then-prime minister conspicuously wore a bullet proof vest under his jacket on the advice of security, a decision he would go on to admit was wrong and over the top (“I never really felt unsafe in Australia,” he would say later).

Asked was it worth it, Mr Howard points to the rarity of mass shootings in Australia, and says that when he’s out in the community, it’s the number one thing people still stop to talk to him about.

“Overwhelmingly I get more stop in the street experiences on guns than anything else, particularly among women.”

“That’s not that there are other things in there are generalised comments …. But yeah, it’s the standout.”

Originally published as John Howard’s relief at Port Arthur arrest, then resolve to make sure it never happened again