Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Banks for that important question. The Australian Crime Commission, our national criminal intelligence agency, tells us that the criminal economy in Australia is worth around $15 billion. That is made up of the illicit drugs trade, money laundering and the trafficking of firearm's. The ACC conservatively estimates that there are about 250,000 long arms and 10,000 handguns in the illicit gun market. Police consistently tell us that there is an inextricable link between guns, drugs and organised crime.

Firearms trafficking is a deadly crime and even a small number of firearms coming into Australia is a huge threat to the safety and security of our communities. And that is why we had an election commitment that we would introduce minimum mandatory sentences of five years prison for offenders charged with the smuggling of firearms or the smuggling of firearms parts. On Monday the Labor Party opposed this policy in the Senate and they did so, according to the shadow minister for justice, because:

… the Australian Labor Party's national platform that it is the strongly-held view of my party that mandatory minimum sentencing is often discriminatory in practice … and so we oppose mandatory sentencing…

We oppose mandatory sentencing. That is interesting because I have come across this document:—

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