Thank you Mr Speaker.
The Opposition is endeavouring to create a distraction from the real agenda of this Parliament which is to end the lawlessness on the construction and building sites of Australia.
Now, let me be very clear - we stand by John Howard’s National Firearms Agreement. We are proud of it.
As I said on the radio this morning every day Australians watch the news they are reminded of what a Coalition Government did, what John Howard did, what our side of politics did. It was the Liberal and the National Parties that put in place that agreement.
Now, Honourable Members want to know about the Adler lever action gun – well if they stopped shouting, I will tell them.
Under the current National Firearms Agreement, lever action shotguns are ‘Category A’.
There has been a move on the COAG Committee of Justice Ministers to have those guns reclassified which we have supported.
Because agreement has not been reached we put in a place an import ban which expired in August this year so we have renewed it and we have renewed it indefinitely.
But what that means is, what that means of course is that the lever action, it is not a temporary ban, it is permanent. It is permanent, it is set in stone unless it is, it can amended but it is there, like any import bans.
But look, if the Honourable Member is seriously interested in the safety of Australians, as I trust we all are, let me explain, firearms are classified under the National Firearms Agreement A,B,C and D. With Category A guns, they are relatively, readily able to be acquired. Category B you need to nominate a specific purpose like primary production. C and D, C and D, are very very difficult to obtain and appropriately so.
So the debate that is being conducted and is not yet agreed between the state jurisdictions who of course have the regulation of firearms is whether and how the Adler seven shot lever action gun should be classified.
And so what we have done, what my Government has done is to ensure that no Adler lever action guns with more than five rounds can be imported in any category. They can’t be imported at all.
What we have done is put a stop on it.
The fact is, we stand by the National Firearms Agreement – we want to see it stronger, we are supporting that with an import ban, we are proud of the achievements of John Howard and the action of the Opposition in trying to use this as a distraction is a disgrace.
I tell you, that ban will remain in place until such time as there is a satisfactory reclassification of these guns by the COAG committee. That was the purpose of the ban when we first put it in place, that’s the purpose when we renewed it.
We stand by our commitment for the public safety of Australians.
The National Firearms Agreement is our achievement. It is John Howard’s achievement.
It is not Labor’s achievement. And this mock sympathy that we get from the Labor Party - the Labor Party would be better off cleaning up its own house rather than creating distractions.
The National Firearms Agreement is defended, it stands there and so does the ban.
[Ends]