Then-PM John Howard reveals he was ready to take states’ powers to curtail guns

It was John Howard’s baptism of fire - the deadly Port Arthur massacre that claimed 35 lives. And Cabinet papers from 1996-1997, released today, reveal just how far he was prepared to go to ensure his gun reforms went through.

PRIME Minister John Howard was prepared for a “nuclear option” to ensure his historic gun reforms went through, as he faced strong push-back from Queensland, it can be revealed today.

The Howard Government endured a baptism of fire dealing with the deadly Port Arthur massacre, which changed the nation just eight weeks after its landslide election on March 2, 1996.

John Howard talking at anti-gun meeting on the Gold Coast on June 16, 1996.

Mr Howard has revealed that if the resistance had not abated, he would have conducted a referendum to transfer power from the states to the Commonwealth in order to progress the reforms.

Mr Howard came to power after 13 years of Labor and had inherited the $7.6 billion dollar “Beazley blackhole”, named after former finance minister and then Opposition leader Kim Beazley.

Radical plans to fix the budget were considered and discarded, including a 12-month time limit for people accessing the dole and cuts to the ABC and SBS so severe they would have required Triple J and Classic FM to be shut down.

But even 1996-97 Cabinet documents released today, after more than 20 years of secrecy, do not reveal the extent of the battle the fledgling Prime Minister faced to reform the nation’s gun laws and ban fully and semiautomatic weapons.

Then-prime minister John Howard [with the outline of a bulletproof vest visible] tries to placate a hostile pro-gun rally in Sale, Victoria on June 16, 1996. Picture: Ray Strange

Mr Howard, speaking at the release of the documents, said he began thinking about national gun laws while he sat in Kirribilli House from the moment he received the “chilling” phone call from the Premier of Tasmania that gunman Martin Bryant had murdered 35 people.

Queensland provided the strongest push-back against the national gun laws put in place in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre on April 28, according to the former PM.

While agreement was reached from the state police ministers at a meeting on May 10, 1996, Mr Howard said it was not a simple matter.

“There was genuine push- back from parts of the government in Queensland and from sections of the Cabinet in Western Australia,” he said.

“I felt if you weren’t prepared to chance your arm on something like this, well what’s the point of being in Government?

“We had to get the co-operation of the states absent the nuclear option and that was to have a referendum to transfer to power from the states to the Commonwealth.

A container of guns at a Brisbane gun buyback centre at Brendale, January 1997. Picture: Glenn Barnes

Port Arthur massacre gunman Martin Bryant.

“I think it would have been carried … (but) the states in the end were helpful.”

Despite Queensland resistance, Mr Howard praised then Premier Rob Borbidge for backing the gun reforms, despite it being partially credited with his 1998 election loss.

“Rob Borbidge was very courageous … he paid the greatest price in my view of all in political terms,” he said.

In the 1998 election, One Nation won 11 seats in the Queensland parliament.

Mr Howard said it set the scene for the “One Nation insurgency”.

John Howard praised then Premier Rob Borbidge, pictured, for backing the gun reforms, despite it being partially credited with his 1998 election loss. Picture: Mark Cranitch

“There was overwhelming support for what we did. But in certain areas in the bush people felt aggrieved, they thought they had been deprived and handicapped through the behaviour of a madman,” he said.

“People who felt their guns were being taken away unfairly rallied to Pauline Hanson.”

As well as backlash from the National Firearms Agreement, the Howard government had to make tough choices for budget repair.

While it eventually agreed to a $55 million cut to the ABC’s budget and a review of its operations, even more brutal cuts were considered.

One option canvassed by Cabinet was slashing the ABC and SBS combined budget by 20 per cent, or about $130 million a year, or even merging the two entities.

Communications and Arts Minister Richard Alston warned this would have seen the broadcaster lose the ability to operate Triple J and Classic FM. “Since press speculation concerning possible budget cuts to the ABC commenced, I have received more than 350 representations, many from rural Australians,” Mr Alston warned.

Social Security Minister Jocelyn Newman also successfully fought against a plan to impose a time limit for how long unemployment benefits could be received, saying it would be breaking an election “iron-clad guarantee”.