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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (6 May) . . Page.. 969 ..

MR BERRY (10.54): I move:

That the debate be adjourned.

MR SPEAKER: That is the shortest statement you have made so far.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (10.54): Mr Speaker, I ask for leave to present the Firearms (Amendment) Bill 1997.

Leave granted.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I present the Firearms (Amendment) Bill 1997, together with its explanatory memorandum.

Title read by Clerk.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I move:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

This Bill introduces a number of amendments to the Firearms Act 1997. These changes have become necessary following a recent judgment in the ACT Magistrates Court. The Weapons Act 1991 was amended, with effect from 17 May 1996, to prohibit the classes of firearms agreed to by Police Ministers at their meeting on 10 May. This followed the tragic events which took place at Port Arthur on Sunday, 28 April 1996, the recent anniversary of which was remembered with sympathy and sadness throughout Australia.

Members will recall that the amending legislation was supported and passed unanimously by the Assembly, and we became the first Australian jurisdiction to give legislative effect to this prohibition. Those amendments also enabled compensation to be paid to firearms owners who surrendered their prohibited firearms, provided the firearms were lawfully in the owner's possession and were voluntarily surrendered within the 12-month amnesty period. Compensation for surrendered prohibited firearms has been paid in accordance with the schedule of nationally agreed values which was developed for the Commonwealth by an expert working group. Those values are based on published values of prohibited firearms as at 1 March 1996. However, the Weapons Act gives no legislative force to that schedule.

A successful challenge to a compensation payment, which was made in accordance with the schedule, was recently mounted in the ACT Magistrates Court. The plaintiff's firearm was a modified version of a firearm listed on the schedule and the court upheld his claim for an additional amount of compensation. The Government's concern, Mr Speaker,

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