Gun control debate reignites after Bondi attack

0:00Three decades on from the tragedy at Port Arthur, gun control is still being debated, especially after last year's terror attack in Bondi. To tell us more, we're joined this afternoon by spokesperson for gun control Australia Pee's Grove. Pee's, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. Let's start with Port Arthur. We heard the Prime Minister being quoted there with Mike's report saying there was a time in history that John Howard showed leadership and changed our gun laws forever, but it was very controversial, wasn't it? It was very controversial, but the political unity that existed in that moment extended beyond John Howard and went through every state government that acted in unity to deliver the gun buyback, the new classes of firearms, the reasons for having them. So it was a really a national response to a national tragedy, and unfortunately what we've

1:01been seeing in the aftermath of the Bondi tragedy is that while we've got the leadership from the Albanese government, we're seeing a very, very fractured response from the states and without that unity, we're just not going to get the same strength of response that we saw 30 years ago. We thought after Port Arthur that we were very, very tough with gun control in this country, really leading the world in many circumstances. Pee is from your position right now after Bondi, where are the loopholes in the legislation? Look, the loopholes are largely created through evolution of it. You know, the sorts of guns that are available now were not available 30 years ago, and therefore they weren't conceived of under the legislation. The things that were promised and 30 years later haven't been delivered on like the national firearm register. You would think having a nationalist of all the firearms that are in our community that

2:06can be accessed by different organisations has never come through. We've still got some jurisdictions with pen and paper for their registries. We've also seen the number of guns that individual gun owners have got in their own personal collections has grown, and we don't see that that's a good outcome. One of the criticisms is that we're often putting an imposition on legal law-abiding gun owners. But the truth is that 90% of the illegal firearms that we see used in street crimes and burglaries and all sorts of stuff started off life as legal guns. So we have to actually address the pool of guns that are in the community, how many of them they are, how they're tracked, and also the sort of firepower.

3:08We saw perfectly legal guns used at Bondi, and I think for most of us who saw that footage we were astounded by just how many rounds they could get off and they were legal guns. So we need to look at what we're actually comfortable within our community, and then a buyback is really only about buying back the excess and the illegal guns out of the market. So the implications for legal law-abiding shooters should be very, very minimal and interest in the interests of public health. These are really important conversations we need to have before another tragedy occurs because we really appreciate your insight. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you.