NSW Govt 'aiding push to ease gun laws'

The Greens have accused the New South Wales Government of courting the Shooters Party to help ease the passage of controversial legislation to ease the state's gun controls.

The Bill, introduced to the Upper House by Shooters Party MP Roy Smith, would relax some safeguards and remove the 28-day waiting period for people with a registration waiting for a second gun.

Mr Smith says he expects State Government support, given the Bill has been drafted in consultation with the Police Ministry.

"We drafted this legislation over a period of 12 months and we've had ongoing discussions with both the Police Ministry and NSW Firearms Registry," he said.

Greens MP Sylvia Hale says it is extraordinary that the ministry was involved.

"That's amazing access," she said. "It indicates the Government is really keen to duchess the Shooters."

The Government allowed the introduction of the bill to be fast-tracked last Thursday. Ms Hale says that is suspicious treatment of the cross-benches.

"This really does ring alarm bells. It suggests there's been some sort of conniving where the Government has agreed to let this Bill go through in return for some sort of deal.

"There are two deals at the moment. One is about electricity privatisation and the other would be the planning bills. I suspect it's the planning bills."

Police Minister David Campbell's office has confirmed talks were held between the ministry, the Premier's Department and the Shooters Party, but insists it in no way helped draft the Bill.

The legislation would also remove the need to register guns made before the 1900s and allow more people to apply for a self-loading or pump-action shotgun to use in clay target shooting competitions.

Mr Smith says they are simple changes.

"They are really just a tidying up of red tape," he said. "No-one's talking about returning semi-automatic military firearms to the community or anything like that."

There would also be more exemptions for people without a licence to shoot at ranges.

Indigenous welfare quarantine scheme gets go ahead

Parents in four Cape York Indigenous communities could soon have their welfare payments quarantined if they do not take care of their children and homes and do not stay out of trouble with the law.

As of July, the new Family Responsibility Commission will have powers to manage welfare payments in Aurukun, Coen, Hope Vale and Mossman Gorge.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says it will be a difficult time for some residents and the trial won't be an overnight success.

"In light of past policy failures we simply have to try something different," she said.

The Opposition voted in favour of the bill, but leader Lawrence Springborg says it is just one step in the right direction.

"One step doesn't get us very far," he said.

Ms Bligh says the radical new approach to welfare has been led by the communities themselves.

"It is not the work of Mal Brough or Brendan Nelson or Anna Bligh or Peter Beattie," she said.

"It is the intellectual hard yards done by the likes of Noel Pearson, by the people who worked on his team and by the leadership of the communities of Aurukun, Coen, Mosman Gorge and Hopevale that deserve credit."

Meanwhile, the working party Ms Bligh set up to discuss a referendum on fixed four-year parliamentary terms will meet for the first time today but the Opposition still wants certain conditions met before it will agree to a poll.

Related:

Seminar: Indigenous Sentencing Courts and Partner Violence

Presenter: Dr. Elena Marchetti is a Senior Lecturer in the Griffith Law School, Griffith University (formerly, she was a law lecturer in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University). During a 6-month period in 2005-06, she was Acting Director of the Centre for Credit and Consumer Law, Griffith University. Elena has been conducting research on race, whiteness and Indigenous justice issues since 1999. She has been researching the Indigenous sentencing courts since 2001. She completed her PhD in 2005 on ‘Missing Subjects: Women and Gender in the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody’.

Abstract: There has been growing concern regarding the increasing violence against women and children in Indigenous communities. It is important to find good practice guidelines to address family violence but unfortunately there has been little evaluation of the anti-violence programs that have been established by Indigenous people within their communities. The inclusion of Elders in the Magistrates’ Court system is an initiative which has been, in some court sites, instigated by the Indigenous community. At other court sites, the Magistrate and government departments have established the courts with the community’s involvement. In this presentation I will firstly describe what feminist and critical race scholars have said about using alternative justice forums to deal with domestic violence offences. Secondly, I will give a brief description of the Indigenous sentencing courts in Australia. Thirdly, I will talk a little bit about some of my findings from preliminary research I have been conducting (with funding from Griffith University). I have collected data from interviews with Magistrates, Elders, court workers and domestic violence support workers to investigate whether the processes of the Indigenous sentencing courts are suitable for dealing with the sentencing of domestic violence offenders and whether they address the concerns raised by feminist and critical race scholars. Finally, I will briefly outline the research proposed in an ARC Discovery grant application which I have recently submitted with Professor Kathleen Daly and Dr Jackie Huggins.

School of Justice Seminar Series
School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology
Gardens Point Campus
X Block, Level 5 Conference Room

1pm, Friday, 14th March 2008

RSVP to Georgina Vidgen g.vidgen@qut.edu.au by 13th March 2008