FIREARMS (MISCELLANEOUS) AMENDMENT BILL

Final Stages

The Legislative Council agreed to the bill with the amendments indicated by the annexed schedule, to which amendments the Legislative Council desires the concurrence of the House of Assembly:

No. 1. Clause 9, page 5, line 19 [clause 9, inserted section 14(3)(d)]—Delete '10' and substitute '28'

No. 2. Clause 14, page 11, lines 19 to 27 [clause 14, inserted section 29BA]—Delete section 29BA

No. 3. Clause 19, page 14, lines 1 to 13—Delete the clause

Consideration in committee.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I move:

That the Legislative Council's amendments be agreed to.

I am advised that we are happy to accept all of the amendments, and that's part of this ecumenical moment we are having here on the last day. I understand there is a spirit where people are going to get on with this and not chew up time. We have a number of retiring members who have got important things they wish to share with us, and I think it would be a shame if we consume this last valuable time our retiring members have with unnecessary chatter about things that we all agree on. For that reason, and that reason alone, I do not oppose anything that has been put forward by the Legislative Council.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: The opposition supports the Deputy Premier in his words, and we support these three amendments. I would like to just use a little bit of time very briefly to touch on them. Our concern about this bill has been very much about unintended consequences. There is very clearly good intent on the government's behalf with regard to amending the Firearms Act with this bill to work on the criminal and illegal use of firearms. We support that wholeheartedly, and we support the way that that has been done in the bill.

The issue, of course, is with regard to how this bill would have very many significant unintended consequences on the legal and responsible owners and users of firearms. I think the government and SAPOL both understand that. It is not for me to put words in their mouths, but I believe they both understand that. But they were in a hurry to get this through.

I would like to thank publicly an enormous number of legal and responsible firearms owners and users who have come forward with a very wide range of amendments. I would like to apologise to them, I think on behalf of both sides of the house, that it has not been possible in the very short period of time available to deal with all of those, but we have made some very significant moves forward.

I thank the Minister for Police for agreeing to my two amendments, which removed everything that was in the bill about magazines with greater than 10 rounds, because that would have been an absolute nightmare, to be quite frank, and would not have achieved what the government wanted to achieve. All of the legal, responsible people would have been penalised, and on all of the illegal, irresponsible people it would have had no impact whatsoever. So, I am grateful that the government has agreed to that.

We also agree with the amendment from the Hon. Robert Brokenshire, which is a pretty straightforward improvement to the bill to change the allowable time that a legal, responsible firearms owner can lend a firearm from 10 days to 28 days. We certainly support that as well, and I certainly believe that, regardless of the outcome of the election in March, either a Liberal or a Labor government would bring back the Firearms Act for further improvements.

Motion carried.