Tuesday 28 November 2017
Hansard of the Legislative Council

MOTION
Firearms Amendment Regulations - Disallowance

Mr FINCH (Rosevears) - Mr President, I have dealt with this issue over quite a number of years now - since the strengthening of that storage situation for gun owners - and I must say that I had some strong representations years ago and representations not as strong these days.  The issue we have had recently is the changing of the goal posts, which must be frustrating for people who are law-abiding, who want to comply with the law but it keeps changing, or it changes and they have to shell out their hard-earned money to comply with the regulations.  They do it but begrudgingly because they thought that they had their places set up.

I appreciated very much the presentation by the member who gave us an overview of what transpired and how things have come to be.  I agree with the member:  we must have the partnership cooperation with our House, with parliament and with the police because they have to work and function in a changing environment, and criminals are going to find new ways of doing all sorts of nefarious things -

Ms Rattray - You can buy cordless angle grinders now.  It is a whole new world.

Mr FINCH - It is a changing situation.  We all have to change to suit the situation, but I agree with you:  we do not want to come back here in a circumstance where we are going to be critical of the way police go about their operations.
 
Your message is strong and hopefully that will resonate and there will be that caution in how those people who are law-abiding are dealt with.  As for the criminals, that is a different matter altogether.  The people who are law-abiding need to be, not handled with kid gloves, but considered strongly when decisions are made.

Years ago, when I was closer to this circumstance than I am now, I wanted to bring an issue to the attention of the Commissioner of Police, Mr Hine.  There was agreement on that; I came to Hobart with the complainant and we were treated very well.  That was the sort of cooperation we need to have in this space when we are dealing with the police and with people who feel aggrieved but want to cooperate with police.  They need to resolve those issues and they need to have the opportunity to do that.  I am very concerned, member for Windermere, about your person.