Tasmanian election: Liberal poll-eve plan to relax gun laws

Tasmania’s Liberal government has quietly promised a significant relaxation of post-Port Arthur massacre gun laws.

Farmer Mike Johnston, on his Meander property yesterday with a Ruger rifle, supports a relaxation of gun laws. Picture: Chris Crerar

Tasmania’s Liberal government has quietly promised a significant relaxation of post-Port Arthur massacre gun laws, in a contentious policy released to the gun lobby but kept off the party’s ­website.

The election-eve plan to water down the state’s firearm laws — described as “common sense” by shooters, farmers and the Liberals — was attacked by gun-control campaigners as “reckless” and “a square breach” of the National Firearms Agreement.

It includes: extending the limit on gun licence duration from five years to 10, despite concerns that mental health can change in that time; downgrading of “lesser” breaches of firearm storage laws to the level of infringement notices ­rather than court summons; and ending mandatory weapon confiscation in such “lesser” cases. The policy would also extend ownership of Category C weapons, including pump-action and rapid-fire shotguns, to a broader range of sporting shooters.

As well, it flags a new Category E that would allow banned firearms to be used by unspecified “specialists” who have “lawful reasons to possess them”.

Many of the changes would free up use of firearms on farms. Tasmanian fat-lamb farmer Mike Johnston backed the changes, arguing aspects of current laws hampered farmers’ use of guns to control browsing animals and humanely kill sick and injured stock.

“For primary producers, firearms are a tool of the trade; they are no different to me than a shovel or a crowbar,” Mr Johnston said.

He accused gun-control lobbyists of failing to grasp the need for semi-automatic weapons on farms. “If I go out to shoot wallaby for crop protection, they are in plague proportions and I may pull up at times and need to shoot six to 10 wallabies,” he said. “If I have to reload in between, those wallabies will disappear.”

Tasmanian sporting shooter Andrew Judd. Picture: Peter Mathew

Roland Browne, Hobart-based lawyer and vice-chairman of Gun Control Australia, said the policy was clearly in breach of the NFA, achieved by then-prime minister John Howard in response to the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.

“This policy will see an increase in the sales of Catergory C weapons, silencers and ammunition; it will take Tasmania back to the days where we had a reputation as the shooting capital of Australia,” Mr Browne said.

“(It) is reckless. It is also astonishing because it is being pushed by the party that responded so well to the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, and by a Police Minister who (last year) so bravely reformed Tasmania’s storage laws.

“The pejorative reference in the policy to ‘red tape’ is a matter of great concern. The Port Arthur massacre was a product of a lack of ‘red-tape’ … American school shootings are the inevitable product of a lack of ‘red tape’. It is ‘red tape’ that has seen no public mass shootings in Australia for coming up to 22 years.”

The policy was not published on the Liberal Party’s website, along with other election policies. Instead, it was sent to the Sporting Shooters Association, which lobbied for many of the changes and posted the policy on its website.

Police Minister Rene Hidding denied avoiding scrutiny on the eve of the knife-edge election and rejected Gun Control Australia’s claims. “These are commonsense changes that already occur in other jurisdictions and remain consistent with the NFA,” he said.

“We believe our policy gets the balance right between keeping the community safe while also supporting law-abiding firearm owners. We ­generally don’t put policies online when they only affect a small number of stakeholders; rather, we communicate directly with them.”

The Greens accused the Liberals of sneakily weakening gun laws to win votes. “The Liberals’ firearms policy is designed to win votes at the expense of community safety, and the fact that they have cooked it up behind closed doors shows contempt for the Tasmanian public,” said Fraser Brindley, the Greens candidate for the largely rural seat of Lyons.

The Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association and the Sporting Shooters Association welcomed the changes as modest and necessary, firmly rejecting claims they would lead to more weapons in the wrong hands.

Sporting Shooters president Andrew Judd said current restrictions prevented sportsmen from entering some global rifle competitions, such as those using 10-shot semi-automatic 22s.