Firearms Legislation (Amendment) Bill

About this Item
Speakers - Pickering The Hon Edward
Business - Bill, Second Reading

FIREARMS LEGISLATION (AMENDMENT) BILL

Second Reading

The Hon. E. P. PICKERING (Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Vice-President of the Executive Council) [4.5]: I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill, which will amend the Firearms Act and regulations, the Prohibited Weapons Act and regulations and the Crimes Act, has as its primary aim the improvement of public safety by reducing the misuse of firearms in the community. Last year this Parliament established a Joint Select Committee upon Gun Law Reform to generally review firearms laws as a direct and positive response to the tragic circumstances of the "Strathfield massacre". That committee reported to the Parliament in October 1991. The
Page 358
Australian Police Ministers Council met in October and November 1991 and thoroughly reviewed legislation relating to the use of firearms throughout Australia with the objective of achieving, at least, agreed minimum national standards. The special Premiers' meeting in Adelaide in November endorsed the agreement achieved by police Ministers. This bill has been framed therefore after extensive public debate and consultation.

The legislation particularly reinforces the Government's absolute commitment to protect women and children who can be at risk from the misuse of firearms in situations of domestic violence. A mandatory obligation will be imposed on police to confiscate firearms from any residential premises where actual or threatened domestic violence has occurred or whose occupants have been involved in a domestic violence incident elsewhere and from persons against whom apprehended violence orders or interim apprehended violence orders have been issued. It will also be mandatory for police to suspend the shooter licence or permit of any person who has committed or is alleged to have committed a domestic violence offence as defined in the Crimes Act. Under the Crimes Act, a domestic violence offence means a personal violence offence committed against:

(a) a person who is or has been married to the person who commits the offence; or

(b) a person who is living with or has lived with the person who commits the offence as his wife or her husband, as the case may be, on a bona fide domestic basis although not married to him or her, as the case may be; or

(c) a person who is living with or has lived ordinarily in the same household as the person who commits the offence-otherwise than merely as a tenant or boarder; or

(d) a person who is or has been a relative—within the meaning of subsection (6)—of the person who commits the offence; or

(e) a person who has or has had an intimate personal relationship with the person who commits the offence.

Police search and seizure powers in relation to firearms when called to any domestic violence situation, irrespective of where the incident occurs, will be strengthened. The legislation aims to reduce the incidence of trauma arising from domestic violence involving firearms and preclude access to firearms in households where there has been an incident of actual or threatened domestic violence irrespective of where the incident occurred. Police will also be required to apply for a search warrant in order to search for and seize firearms from houses whose occupants have been involved in a domestic violence incident where the police have reasonable cause to believe that a firearm is in the house but have been informed by the occupants that there is no firearm in the house. It will be mandatory for police to suspend the firearm licence or permit of a person who has been charged with or has committed or threatened to commit an offence involving domestic violence.

The legislation also requires police to automatically suspend and commence revocation action in respect of holders of firearm licences or permits where apprehended or interim apprehended violence orders have been made. Once a final apprehended violence order is issued there will be no right of appeal against revocation of the shooter licence. Persons who have been subject to an apprehended violence order made against them at any time within 10 years before they apply for a firearm licence or permit will be prohibited from obtaining any licence or permit unless the apprehended violence order has been specifically revoked. Thus an apprehended violence order will have the same effect as a conviction for any of the proscribed offences currently included in the firearms
Page 359
legislation.

The Crimes Act will be amended to require police to apply for an apprehended violence order on behalf of a victim of domestic violence in certain circumstances. The Commissioner of Police will issue suitable instructions to police with respect to the administration of the new legislative requirements regarding domestic violence. The joint select committee also made recommendations relating to mental illness and firearms misuse. The Government is reviewing this very difficult and complex issue and there will be full consultation with a wide range of groups within the community. The Government is hopeful, however, that it will be able to address the problems involved and to this end a senior interdepartmental officers' working party has been established by the Cabinet Office. In addition to firearms matters touching domestic violence, the legislation also makes changes to the existing provisions governing the licensing of persons who wish to possess and use firearms.

Shooter licences will be issued only to those persons who can establish a genuine reason to possess or use the relevant category of firearm. The regulations will spell out in detail what will constitute a genuine reason. However, largely based upon the recommendations of the parliamentary joint select committee, it is envisaged that the following will be deemed to be a genuine reason: primary production, business or employment, collecting, sporting members of approved shooting clubs, vermin control, hunting, family heirlooms—issued under a commissioner's permit, animal welfare and animal population control. In an important move that will do much to reduce dramatically the level of firearms in the community, persons applying for a firearms licence for both pistols and longarms on the basis of personal protection or for the protection of their property will not be considered to have a genuine reason.

There will be three categories of shooter licences or permits covering longarms, based on those classes adopted by the Australian Police Ministers Council, which can be expected to be uniformly followed across the nation. They are as follows. Class 1 licences will confer authority to possess and use for any lawful purpose air rifles, rifles, shotguns or rifle-shotgun combinations, other than prohibited weapons and self-loading, centre-fire rifles or self-loading shotguns fitted with an integral or detachable magazine capable of holding more than five rounds. Class 2 licences will confer authority to possess and use for any lawful purpose non-military, self-loading, centre-fire rifles fitted with an integral magazine or with a detachable magazine capable of holding no more than five rounds and all self-loading shotguns fitted with an integral magazine or with a detachable magazine capable of holding no more than five rounds. Finally, a permit is to be issued by the Commissioner of Police which will cover all other firearms including, but not limited to, non-military style self-loading centre-fire rifles with a detachable magazine capable of holding more than five rounds and military style self-loading centre-fire rifles.

Based upon the evidence given to and the recommendations of the joint select committee, shooter licences henceforth will incorporate a photograph and will be issued only to those persons who can establish a genuine reason to possess or use the relevant category of firearm. For convenience, photographic licences will be issued in conjunction with the Roads and Traffic Authority driver licence system. Class 1 licences will be issued for an unlimited period subject to photo renewal every five years while class 2 licences and commissioner's permits will be issued for five years and then be subject to complete re-application. Personal pistol licences, or class 1(a) licences, will no longer be available. There is no demonstrated reason why there should be a proliferation of hand guns in the community. Personal protection or protection of property is no longer
Page 360
an acceptable genuine reason for a personal pistol licence. What is an acceptable genuine reason and what is not, will be defined in the regulations to this legislation, as I have already mentioned. Those persons with a genuine reason for possessing and using a pistol will be able to make application within an alternative licence category, for example, business pistol licence, government pistol licence or target pistol shooter licence.

To reduce the risk of misuse of firearms, particularly in the home, stringent requirements have been included in the legislation relating to the safe and secure storage of firearms. Persons who possess a firearm will be required to take all reasonable precautions to ensure its safe keeping. They will have to ensure either that the bolt or firing mechanism, where possible, is removed from the balance of the firearm, that the bolt or firing mechanism is not stored with the balance of the firearm, that no ammunition is in the firearm, that no ammunition is stored with the firearm or that the firearm is stored with the ammunition in a secure, locked storage approved, or of a type approved by the Commissioner of Police.

The Hon. Ann Symonds: How are you going to monitor that?

The Hon. E. P. PICKERING: I will tell you. Firearms safety training in the safe possession, use and storage of firearms is already mandatory. The firearms safety awareness course, which is already established and functioning, provides to all intending new shooters seeking a shooter licence the opportunity for instruction in the basic safety principles applying to firearms. The three principal safety awareness areas identified for new shooters when handling firearms are as follows: at home, when travelling, and when in use in the field. Intending applicants apply to their nearest organised shooting community representative, who is usually a firearms safety inspector accredited under this scheme, to undertake the firearms safety awareness course. When the applicant passes the course, a certificate of competency is issued as evidence that the person named therein has satisfactorily passed an examination in the safe use of firearms. The applicant may then approach his nearest police station and apply for a shooter licence, which may be issued after the necessary 28-day cooling-off period and a criminal record inquiry. These existing arrangements for firearms safety training are considered appropriate.

Licensing provisions will extend to government agencies and their employees with respect to acquisition, disposal, possession and use of firearms. Members of the Police Service, prison officers and members of the armed services will be the only government employees exempted from these new provisions. Naval reserve cadets, the Australian Cadet Corps and the Air Training Corps will be allowed to carry self-loading rifles for the purposes of the activities of the corps or cadets and, in accordance with any guidelines issued by the Commissioner of Police, without the need to hold a licence or permit. The legislation will also require dealers, manufacturers and importers of firearms in New South Wales to provide details at regular intervals to the Commissioner of Police of firearms forwarded to dealers or sold within New South Wales. It will be an offence to send or receive a firearm through the mail, thus requiring firearms to be forwarded by a secure form of delivery.

Persons may only purchase a firearm or ammunition which corresponds to the category of firearm for which that person is licensed. It will also be an offence to possess ammunition for a firearm unless the person holds a licence for a firearm which takes that ammunition. Holders of a firearms licence or permit who are convicted of the offence of not notifying a change in their usual residential address and who did not notify the change within 28 days after it occurred will be disqualified from holding a licence or
Page 361
permit for five years. New offences will be created under the Crimes Act making it an offence for a person to enter private property possessing or using a firearm without permission of the owner or occupier or without a lawful purpose or reasonable excuse. Amendments will be made to the Prohibited Weapons Act which will give power to the Commissioner of Police, acting within guidelines established by regulation, and not the Minister for Police to issue permits with respect to prohibited weapons and articles. The legislation will also significantly extend the range of weapons included in the schedule of prohibited weapons under the Prohibited Weapons Act.

Provision has been made, however, to allow primary producers in possession of certain self-loading rifles and shotguns which will become illegal under this legislation to continue to possess and use their firearms, but not to sell them, subject to the firearm being used only in relation to their employment or business as a primary producer. It will also be subject to the magazine being permanently modified to a maximum capacity of five rounds. This provision will exist until the expiration of the term of their current licence or permit, at which time they will be entitled to apply for a class 2 licence. The Commissioner of Police will be empowered to issue permits to persons whose business or employment is not solely as a primary producer but who have lawfully possessed certain firearms which will become prohibited weapons under this legislation and who have an approved genuine reason to continue to possess and use the firearm for five years or until 30th June, 1997, whichever is the shorter period. Persons who possess any firearm which cannot be lawfully possessed under the new legislation will be required to surrender their firearm to the Commissioner of Police without delay. Appropriate compensation for surrendered firearms will be determined by an expert independent group.

An approach has been made to the Prime Minister for Commonwealth compensation with the States on a dollar for dollar basis, but to date no response has been received. In addition, the Commissioner of Police will have a discretion to waive any future licence or permit fee payable before 30th June, 1997, by any person who surrenders a firearm as part or full compensation towards the value of the firearm. The Government is of the view that there must be an equitable balance between safeguarding the community from the misuse of firearms, with a particular focus on domestic violence and the lawful rights of those persons who have a genuine reason to use or possess firearms legitimately. By introducing these legislative initiatives, the Government has taken a strong, positive action in accordance with the recommendations of the joint select committee and the Australian Police Ministers Council and also the domestic violence recommendations of the National Committee on Violence.

The legislation is broadly based on the recommendations of the joint select committee. The committee deliberated on the issues on a non-partisan basis and was able to reach consensus decisions. The committee considered submissions and took evidence from a broad spectrum of individuals and organisations. Many of the issues considered by the committee were most difficult and potentially divisive not only within the committee itself but within the community as a whole. The effect of the legislation will be to restrict the level of gun ownership in the community to those persons who can establish a genuine reason to possess or use a firearm. In the longer term the Government anticipates that the amended legislation will bring about a significant cultural change in the community regarding the possession and use of firearms. The legislation will restrict the ownership of firearms. However, it is not a denial of the rights of legitimate shooters to possess and use firearms for which they are appropriately licensed. In addition, the legislation will remove from the community the large number of firearms
Page 362
currently held in many homes by persons solely for personal protection reasons. As I mentioned previously, the work which has preceded the development of this legislation is unique. I pay tribute to the non-partisan approach and consensus achieved by the parliamentary Joint Select Committee upon Gun Law Reform. The Government is confident that this legislation will be similarly supported on a non-partisan basis. I commend the bill.

Debate adjourned on motion by the Hon R. D. Dyer.

Last modified 05/12/2007 16:34:38 : Update this page