Dr WOODRUFF question to MINISTER for POLICE, FIRE and EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, Mrs PETRUSMA, referred to PREMIER
A new police task force cracking down on illegal guns has been set up in Tasmania's north after a concerning number of incidents. These include 15 shootings in the last four months in Launceston. Last month a firearm was discharged through the Bridgewater McDonalds drive through window at a staff member, and last week police raided two rural properties and found a wide variety of firearms, hand guns, semi-automatic rifles, double barrel shotguns, ammunition and grenade-Type explosives. Clearly this is evidence of illegal firearms activity in Tasmania and is a matter of great concern.
A tripartisan parliamentary firearms inquiry was held following the Liberals' attempt to weaken Tasmania's gun laws before the 2018 state election. That inquiry made a range of critical recommendations to strengthen firearms regulations in Tasmania and bring us into line with the National Firearms Agreement. These include more funding for firearm services to improve their service delivery, including background checks and risk alerts. It also included a review between firearm services and medical authorities in relation to risks for family violence.
Will you commit to resourcing and enacting all the recommendations from the Tasmanian firearms inquiry?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I thank the member for Franklin for her question. First, I thank our police for their efforts and the work that they do. We can all agree that with their efforts and the task force that has been set up, while it is unfortunate that they are catching people with the cases of guns and ammunition that we are seeing reported, on the other hand it demonstrates that what they are doing is working. I thank them for that and for their work.
As for the recommendations that you have asked me about, I do not have advice in front of me either to explain what we are currently doing or to consider what other steps we might take. I will provide the House with an update today if I can; if not, I will write to you directly within the next week.