Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In continuation, I support measures to make the firearms owners more robust and thorough, but the registration of firearms to licensed owners should be made less bureaucratic. Given that some 90 per cent of firearm related crimes are committed with unlicensed firearms, the focus of law enforcement should be directed at clamping down on the estimated 260,000 illegal firearms in Australia. Legitimate shooters support tough legislation to prevent illegal firearms from being brought into the country.

In summary, I am strongly in support of this legislation, which will be effective in combating the illegitimate use of firearms by setting a mandatory minimum sentence of five years imprisonment for firearms trafficking offences and doubling the existing maximum penalty to 20 years imprisonment or a fine of 5,000 penalty units or both. I commend the bill to the House.

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