Consultation closes on proposed new guns laws

Consultation on new gun laws has closed, with the state government receiving more than 600 submissions.

It is expected that the firearms laws will be tabled and debated in parliament before the end of the year.

Proposed changes include harsher penalties for firearm offences ahead of the introduction of the National Firearms Register (NFR).

Other measures - including the reclassification of straight-pull and button/lever-release (self-ejecting) centre-fire and shotgun firearms to the more restrictive Category C licence, and the introduction of Australian citizenship as a requirement for firearm ownership, with appropriate carve-outs - are subject to a jointly funded buyback with the Federal Government.

The Tasmanian government has committed to the national gun buyback in the wake of the Bondi terrorist attack.

The newly proposed laws do not cap the number of firearms a single person can own, something which the Tasmanian Labor Party has been calling for.

TasFarmers was one of the organisations that submitted its thoughts on the reforms.

“We’ve been broadly supportive of the position that the government’s taken with not imposing caps on law-abiding firearm owners, particularly on primary producers who need different tools for different tasks on their farm,” TasFarmers CEO Nathan Calman said.

“We call on bipartisan support for the proposed legislation as it goes through parliament because we think that’s what the majority of Tasmania would want.”

Mr Calman said TasFarmers wanted to see some minor changes to the proposed legislation.

“There’s currently a gap around there not being a permit process for somebody entering Australia on an international visa being able to get an exemption for recreational hunting.

“We also made recommendations around there being a permitted process for primary producers to be able to access suppressors because we know that for many farmers this will make their workplaces safer and also improve the efficacy of the activities that they’re having to conduct as part of running their business.”