2017-06-20
Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) — I can say on behalf of the Greens, as is the case with all other parties, we will not be opposing the motion that is calling for documents. I listened to Mr Young's explanation as to why he has brought forward the motion. If I got the gist of it, it was that somehow perhaps the advice that is going from the police to police ministers in the context of the Council of Australian Governments discussions on firearms across Australia may be incorrect or not kosher. Mr Young may wish to clarify as to what point he is actually making there in his reply.
My response to that would be it is the police who are in contact on a daily basis with the guns that are in circulation in the community. We had reports last year in the Geelong area of some 40 or so firearms being stolen. The police said again that that was due to inadequate storage by licensed firearms holders. Also, there were some cases where up to 13 firearms were stolen from properties and that large numbers of firearms were stored at some properties. I think it is of concern to everyone in the community that people hold so many firearms without any apparent reason.
I think it is worth going to where you can get a lot of information about the number of firearms that are in circulation in Victoria — for example, in the last Victoria Police annual report. You can see that as of 30 June 2016 there were 219 000 current Victorian firearm licences and 792 845 registered firearms were attached to those licences, so there were nearly 800 000 registered firearms in Victoria. There were nearly 35 000 private security licences and registrations. In that same year, when Victoria Police approved new or renewed firearm licence applications, some 957 of them were refused, some 1300 firearm licences and 179 private security licences and registrations were suspended, and 1600 firearm licences and 256 private security licences were cancelled. The police are obviously looking at the fit and proper person test for approving firearm licences, but still in any assessment of these numbers there are a lot of people with firearms licences and there are a lot of firearms in circulation.
On announcing a new national gun amnesty recently, the federal Minister for Justice said that it is estimated there are 260 000 illegal guns in circulation in Australia. Mr Young said scare campaigns are being run about the number of guns in the community. The number the justice minister mentioned is the estimated number of illegal firearms in the community. Of the 40 that were stolen in Geelong and recovered by police, several of those were automatic assault weapons and military-style weapons, which are more and more becoming the type of weapons in circulation in the community. In the hands of the wrong people these weapons are definitely a concern not only to the community but also to the police, particularly if they are stolen or imported illegally. The police are concerned because they are the people who have to be called to incidents that involve these types of firearms.
Just recently there was a report — I think it was on Four Corners — with regard to the importation of illegal firearms, which Mr Young dismissed pre-emptively in his introduction. I was quite astonished that illegal firearms are coming into the country and being missed by customs because they are dismantled and imported in parts, so magazines in one lot of boxes — I am not familiar with all the gun parts — and different parts of guns coming in different boxes. It was only discovered because one particular shipment contained some hundreds of magazines for semiautomatic pistols — —
Mr Young — Glocks.
Ms PENNICUIK — Yes — which should be banned and not allowed into the country. These were discovered by one customs officer who was then appalled to think, 'Well, where are the rest of the gun parts that have already come into the country?'. That spurred on some activity. They were able to recover some of those firearms, but we still have some 200 000 of these illegal firearms in circulation. I do not call that a scare campaign. I call that a very large concern for the community. I also have a question on notice that is still with the minister with regard to 3D printing and the manufacture of illegal firearms in Victoria.
While I am not opposing the motion, I do say that the community is concerned about the number of firearms that are in circulation, and the number of firearms that are held under firearm licences, that are not stored properly and that are being stolen, ending up in the hands of the wrong people. Also, just having firearms in circulation and accessible to people means the probability that they will be used in a crime, including in domestic violence situations, is increased. The less guns we have in circulation, the better.