Cabinet papers 1996-97: John Howard reveals battle over gun laws

Former PM John Howard has opened up on the bitter fight to tighten gun control, just seven weeks after he took office.

John Howard addressing an anti-gun control demonstration at Sale, Victoria, in 1996, wearing a bullet-proof vest, which he later said he regretted.

After Martin Bryant killed 35 ­people at Port Arthur in Tasmania on April 28, 1996, John Howard knew Australia’s gun laws had to change. He also knew there would be resistance, including from within the Coalition’s own ranks.

He had been prime minister for just seven weeks, but he had a 45-seat majority, and he ­intended to use it.

“It was one of those instinctive things,” Mr Howard told The Australian in an exclusive interview.

“When I learnt what had happened, and I had absorbed the magnitude of the slaughter, I thought well heavens above, you’ve got this huge majority, if you don’t use it to do something to bring about a change, well you’ve failed the first test.”

There was significant concern in Queensland and Western Australia about banning automatic and semi-automatic firearms. It was a difficult issue for the National Party with its rural constituency. Mr Howard said some in the ­bureaucracy, a few advisers and even close party colleagues urged him to tread cautiously.

“Every instinct in my body told me I had to do something,” Mr Howard recalled. “I had a view about big majorities — they never last — and it’s better to dissipate them on a good cause than just through neglect and indifference.”

The Howard government’s cabinet papers from 1996 and 1997, released by the National Archives of Australia today, reveal ministers grappling with the Port Arthur massacre, which claimed 35 lives and wounded 23 others. The goal of uniform national gun laws had eluded state and federal governments since the 1980s.

Cabinet first discussed the mass shooting just one day after it occurred, following “an oral report” by Jocelyn Newman, the minister for social security, who had visited Port Arthur. Cabinet noted calls from the Tasmanian government for a ban on “military style semi-automatic weapons” and “the registration of all guns”.

The critical cabinet meeting took place on May 6. It was agreed to prohibit the sale, transfer, possession, manufacture and importation of automatic and semi-automatic firearms. A national firearm registration system would be established. Unregistered weapons could be surrendered without penalty during an amnesty period. And a compensation fund financed through a levy on income tax would be initiated to purchase banned firearms.

Four days later, on May 10, a meeting of state and territory policy ministers essentially adopted the proposals agreed by cabinet. Yet opposition to the new laws was steadily growing in rural and ­regional Australia. Ministers stood by the cabinet decision but agreed on June 4 to an information and advertising campaign to explain the measures. Further refinements to the policy concerning sporting and under-age shooters, and collectors, was agreed on June 11.

Mr Howard said it was “very hard” for National Party leader Tim Fischer and his deputy, John Anderson, and also Queensland premier Rob Borbidge, who he ­described as “heroic” in his acceptance of the need for national gun laws.

“I’ve always been ready to ­acknowledge the difficulty they faced,” Mr Howard said. “It wasn’t hard for me in the metropolitan area. There was overwhelming support in the cities especially, among women.”