Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

We should remember the Port Arthur massacre—35 people killed, 23 people wounded. Right now the National Firearms Agreement, a very significant development that came out of that absolute tragedy, is under threat. There is some good news. The three pillars that that agreement was based on are still in place. Those three pillars are that anyone seeking to own a gun must be licensed, each weapon must be registered and gun ownership remains a conditional privilege rather than a right.

But what we see happening, side by side with that, is incredible pressure being put on state and territory governments to weaken the gun laws, and this is coming from the firearms lobby. Some of the changes are really insidious. Most states now allow children to use firearms—to actually fire guns.