Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Ellison. I am sure that he and all senators will join me in wishing Sergeant Les Cooper, who was shot three times in Tasmania yesterday, a speedy recovery. Minister, in the wake of allegations that a hand gun may have been used in this callous crime, is the government going to review the increasing loss through crime of hand guns in Australia for illegal use and the increasing importation of hand guns, including rapid fire semiautomatic hand guns, with a view to ensuring that they do not fall into criminal hands or are potentially available for criminal use and use against authorised police and security officers?

Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Brown raises a matter which is of great concern to the Commonwealth government and, I think, to state and territory governments around the country—that is, the diversion of firearms from the legal sector into the illegal sector. I note that the Australian Institute of Criminology has a report which indicates that the diversion has dropped—we had a figure a few years ago of around 4,000 thefts a year, and I think that has dropped quite markedly. However, having said that, it is still an issue of concern that there is theft of legal firearms diverted for criminal usage, particularly in relation to concealable weapons such as a hand gun. The Australian Crime Commission is conducting a national operation in relation to the illegal use of firearms and that deals with the illegal trafficking of firearms. This is something which has been addressed at several police ministers councils and will continue to be.

In relation to the regulation of firearms, we have brought in great reforms under the Howard government to restrict ownership of hand guns. It has been a restriction which has seen the buyback of over 60,000 hand guns, but the diversion of legal firearms into the criminal sector is still a matter of major concern and we continue to address it. Whilst the majority of thefts are from residential premises, we still remain concerned that there has been in isolated cases the involvement of some dealers—one in particular in Western Australia was jailed in relation to offences in relation to that. There is an ongoing inquiry into the security industry generally in New South Wales, and that is something we are following closely. It covers a range of areas, not just theft from residential premises although that is the majority of the thefts that have been reported. It is something we are keenly aware of and something we are addressing with the states and territories.

Finally, we are pushing with the states and territories a national firearms management system. We have committed $1 million to that, and it is based roughly on the register in Victoria, which we believe is very good practice in identifying a firearm, distinguishing features, its ownership, its whereabouts, and photographic detail of the firearm. We believe that with a national firearms management system we can keep track of firearms across the board, because you have people in today’s environment moving from state to state. It also assists those people who are legitimately involved in sporting and shooting events who can travel from one state to another and engage quite legitimately in their sport. That is something that we are urging the states to participate in. We are working with the Victorian government in relation to that.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question about semiautomatic hand guns. The minister will recollect that it was one of those weapons that was used to shoot 16 children in Scotland a little over a decade ago, at Dunblane. The minister mentioned the stealing from private premises of hand guns. Can the minister say how many automatic hand guns there are in Australia and what legitimate use there can be for these hand guns outside those used for security purposes and for a very limited number of sports shooters?

Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the short time available, I will take that on notice and table a provision dealing with the regulation in relation to hand guns that we have put into place with the states and territories. It goes down to semiautomatic, length of barrel, magazine capacity and calibre. In relation to this issue, this is something which is ongoing and, in relation to the thefts that are mentioned, I think the report by the AIC—I will check the report—covers the types of firearms which have been stolen. Again, I will provide detail on notice to the Senate.