Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Back on a cold winter's night on 25 June 2009, a hardworking truck driver named Bob Knight—a resident of Canberra's northern suburb of Macgregor, an employee of TNT and a truck driver of some 40-plus years experience—left for Sydney, as he had done many times, at about 5 pm in the evening. He drove up the Hume Highway, as countless other truck drivers do. He had his white prime mover towing along a B-double behind him. He got to Sydney, transferred his trailer around and started to head back home to Canberra.

In doing so, he was driving along Milperra Road, a road very well known to my constituents, a road that I would have driven on thousands of times. He was heading south and west along Milperra Road and he went past the big Bunnings warehouse there on the right-hand side. He came up to Bankstown golf course on the left-hand side and Bankstown Airport on the right-hand side. On the south-west corner of Bankstown Airport, at the intersection of Milperra Road and Henry Lawson Drive, there is a KFC, an ALDI and a car park. At about 10 pm at night Bob Knight was driving along Milperra Road, taking his B-double back to Canberra, doing nothing other than a hard day's work, as millions of other Australians do—getting on with their business, adding value to the economy, being good people.

It is said of Bob Knight that he was a good bloke. It is said that he laughed and he knew all the best jokes. He was happy-go-lucky.

There was another side to Sydney on that night. A couple of young people were having a fight at Bankstown Centro, the shopping centre. The dispute escalated and they called their mates, as they do, and they ended up going to have a fight at the KFC car park on Milperra Road. Instead of bringing their fists, as they had done in the past, these gangs brought illegal firearms with them, and they started to randomly shoot at each other. One of those bullets fired in that gunfight travelled from the KFC car park. It went 120 metres, passing through trees and across six lanes of traffic, and it struck Bob Knight in the head as he was simply driving up to that intersection.

The paramedics attended, but they said that he had little chance, having suffered a horrific gunshot wound to the head. A stray bullet from the reckless gunfight of a group of hoodlums in a car park 120 metres away claimed his life.

There was not only the effect it had on his family. First of all, there was the effect on his wife of such a tragic death of someone just going about their everyday work. In an article in The Sydney Morning Herald his son was quoted as saying:

Every time I see a similar truck go by I look in to see if dad is driving …

His daughter said:

I don't think I've ever really hated anyone before. It just eats away at me …

His wife, to whom he had been married for over 40 years, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital about nine months after her husband had been killed. His daughter said:

I had not only lost my father but the mother I knew and loved had begun to disappear …

All she kept repeating was, 'That bloody bullet—how does a bullet go through trees, across six lanes of traffic and kill my husband like it did?'

This is not just an isolated incident in Sydney. We know some statistics. In just a two-year period from January 2012 nearly two dozen people died from illegal firearms and another 100 were injured in shootings across Sydney. These illegal firearms can only come into the country one way, and that is through the illegal importation. We need to send a very loud and very clear message to our judiciary and to the public at large that this parliament is not going to tolerate such lawlessness and such gun crime in our suburbs.

Bob Knight's wife also said:

He was a very caring person, he cared for the other bloke.

It is about time that we as politicians started caring for the 'other bloke', the hardworking citizens of this country who are doing nothing other than getting on with their jobs and yet who are at risk of a stray bullet from a gunfight by hoodlums and villains. That is why I support this legislation.

This legislation, the Criminal Code Amendment (Firearms Trafficking) Bill 2015, will bring in a mandatory minimum sentence of imprisonment for five years for trafficking firearms and firearm parts within Australia under division 360 of the Criminal Code. Mandatory minimum sentences are tough, but we cannot allow the gun crime that is currently going on in Sydney to continue. We need to take a strong stance. We need to send a strong message. Additionally, this bill will increase the maximum penalties to imprisonment for 20 years or a fine of 5,000 penalty units or both. We need to send the loudest possible message that we can from this parliament that we are taking a very strong stance about those that are involved in the illegal importation of firearms. I do not want to see another Bob Knight. Our citizens in our community of Sydney deserve to be able to go about their business without the risk of being hit by a stray bullet as Mr Knight was.

I commend the minister on his strong stance on this issue. I hope that members of the Labor Party, especially members for electorates in Western Sydney, where most of the gun crime occurs, think carefully before they vote against this bill. We need to send the strongest message. I commend this bill to the House.

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

I thank all members who have made a contribution to this important debate on the Criminal Code Amendment (Firearms Trafficking) Bill 2015. The coalition at the last election made a commitment to the Australian people that we would implement tougher laws for gun related crime. Illegal firearms are an ongoing threat to the Australian community. The Australian Crime Commission conservatively estimates that there are more than one-quarter of a million long-arms and 10,000 handguns within the illicit firearms market. Although there is no single individual or group which dominates the trafficking and supply to this illicit market, we know that the illegal use and possession of firearms is a significant element in organised criminal activity.

Once illicit firearms cross our borders and enter our communities, they are used to facilitate violent crimes, fuelling violence, fuelling intimidation and fuelling fear on our streets. This bill will ensure that the punishment for those who traffic in firearms or in gun parts reflects the grave threat that they present. It will introduce a mandatory minimum sentence of five years imprisonment for offenders convicted of trafficking firearms or firearms parts under the Criminal Code Act 1995. This reflects the seriousness with which the government views gun crime, and the gravity of supplying firearms and firearms parts to the illicit market. That is why, in addition to the mandatory minimum sentence, the government is also doubling the maximum penalties for firearms trafficking from 10 years imprisonment and 2½ thousand penalty units to 20 years imprisonment and 5,000 penalty units. This is consistent with comparable offences in Commonwealth, state and territory jurisdictions. For example, similar offences for firearms trafficking in the ACT, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia have maximum penalties of 20 years imprisonment. Both of these measures are necessary to ensure that the serious offences of trafficking firearms within our country, and into and out of Australia, are matched by appropriate punishments. It is vital that we put in place substantial penalties on all trafficking offences, with the aim of preventing even one more firearm from entering the illicit market.

However, these mandatory minimum sentences for firearms trafficking are not without safeguards. In response to the findings of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, additional clarification regarding two matters has been provided by way of an addendum to the explanatory memorandum. Those matters were in relation to who bears the onus of proof in relation to the age of defendants, and the operation of the mandatory minimum sentences in relation to individuals with a significant cognitive impairment. In relation to the first matter, the addendum clarifies that the defendant bears an evidentiary burden regarding their age. If the defendant discharges that evidential burden, the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant is aged over 18. In relation to the second matter, the addendum confirms that, as there is no non-parole period attached to the mandatory minimum sentence, a court is able to take into account mitigating factors, such as cognitive impairment, in determining how long an offender will spend in custody. The addendum also points to relevant sections in the Criminal Code which protect people with a mental impairment from criminal responsibility.

The combination of mandatory minimum penalties and increased maximum penalties will send a strong message to the community that the illegal trafficking of firearms will not be tolerated and will act as a strong disincentive for people seeking to import firearms or firearms parts illegally into Australia. We do this because even one illegal gun entering the country can cause an enormous amount of damage, and we want to make sure that we are sending the strongest possible signal that we are not going to tolerate it. I present the addendum to the explanatory memorandum.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.