Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I speak in support of this Matter of Public Importance. It is now over 20 years since the horrendous massacre in Port Arthur in Tasmania, and it is very important that we remain as vigilant as ever not to allow our gun laws to be weakened. Indeed, in some cases, I believe they need to still be further strengthened. It's particularly concerning to me—and the Greens more broadly, as my colleague Senator Rhiannon mentioned in her comments—the increasing amount of money that the gun lobby is pouring into Australian politics and towards Australian political parties.

In my own state of Queensland, it's very clear that the cashed-up gun lobby tried to buy the results it wanted in the Queensland election. The Queensland Shooters Union is affiliated with the notorious NRA in the US and threw thousands into the campaigns of One Nation candidates. The Katter party received over $175,000 from one particular gun dealer, and the Electoral Commission's disclosure system showed that in total the Katter party received nearly half a million dollars from firearms interest groups. The Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia spent over half a million dollars itself on TV, radio and online advertising trying to get a weakening of the gun laws in Queensland.

Just like the NRA, the Queensland Shooters Union and the Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia are not merely gun enthusiasts concerned about their rights. I support sporting shooters and their right to conduct legitimate activities. I support farmers and their right to use firearms appropriately in the course of their business. But what these lobby groups are about is trying to expand the firearms industry. In the US, the NRA buys politicians to protect the profits of the arms industry. That is something that cannot be disputed. Unless we move urgently to reform our own political donation system, we could see the same here. The lives of our friends, families, children and loved ones could, potentially, be sacrificed for profit.

So we need to ensure that we ban political donations from the gun lobby. The Greens' view is that we should ban political donations from all for-profit corporations but particularly those from industries that seek to promote profits in areas that are harmful. The Queensland government has made a small advance in moving to ban donations from property developers, which have been shown quite directly to corrupt our political system. Surely, in areas such as this, the gun lobby in particular is an industry we need to be banning donations from. (Time expired)