Liberal and National MPs in State Parliament are set to fail in their bid to dump Labor’s new firearm rules, as the Government accused the Opposition of risking community safety.
The disallowance motion against the Government’s tough gun laws, moved by Nationals leader Shane Love on Wednesday, resulted in the Liberals joining calls for the regulations to be rewritten.
Mr Love pledged at the election to roll back the regulations made in in 2024’s Firearm Act, which limits the number of guns owners can have.
It came after the issue led to tensions between the Nationals and Liberals when Mr Love said he would not form government with the Liberals if they did not support disallowing the firearm reforms.
“People in regional Western Australia, especially, have a deep understanding of the need for firearms in their community,” he said on Wednesday.
“Not only for the control of pest species on their land but also as one of their recreational pursuits and a way of ensuring that the community’s health, their mental health, is taken care of because for many people that activity of firearm use is their recreation.
“Taking that away from them is making people feel really under threat and has been very, very poorly executed by this Government and is fundamentally politically based, not based on the needs of public safety.”
Premier Roger Cook warned that the move could risk community safety.
“WA is safer today because of our gun law reforms, Western Australians live in a safer community because of our gun law reforms, so it’s very disturbing to see that the Nationals are going forward with their disallowance motion, which will put these laws into disarray,” he said.
“That’s incredibly concerning, it’s a choice about whether you own a gun but it’s a right to know that you are safe living in Western Australia and that’s what these gun laws are in there to do.”
Mr Love refuted the suggestion.
“I’d say that’s bumpkin, we’re not trying to jeopardise community safety but what we’re not about is imposing on the community a whole range of unworkable regulations and laws which are actually unjustifiably making people feel that they’ve been victimised by their own,” he said.
Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas conceded that Labor’s commanding majority meant the motion was doomed to fail.
“We all know the numbers in this place, this is not going to pass but this is an opportunity for the opposition parties to make the point on behalf of police and doctors that large elements of these regulations are unworkable,” he said.
“What I’m doing is exactly what I just said, we’re using the parliamentary procedures available to us to support police and to support doctors who have said large elements of these regulations are unworkable.
“We always said, and everybody knows this, we always said this legislation did not get the proper scrutiny. It was rushed through.”
