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Nationals and Liberals team up to try and revoke firearm act reform

Nationals and Liberals team up to try and revoke firearm act reform

West Australian21-05-2025
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.'
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Barnaby Joyce wants Australia to abandon net zero - but his 4 central claims don't stack up
Barnaby Joyce wants Australia to abandon net zero - but his 4 central claims don't stack up

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Barnaby Joyce wants Australia to abandon net zero - but his 4 central claims don't stack up

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What's more, Joyce's claim ignores the near-universal agreement of nations signed up to the Paris Agreement - including Australia - to pursue efforts (including domestic measures) to limit the average global temperature rise to 1.5°C. It's true that collective national efforts to curb warming have so far been insufficient. But that doesn't mean they should be abandoned. McCormack claims there is a growing global shift against net zero, and Joyce describes it as "a peculiar minority position". This statement is not backed by evidence. In fact, the number of countries, cities, businesses and other institutions pledging to get to net-zero is growing. In the United States, President Donald Trump has dismantled climate policy, damaging that nation's progress towards net zero. But many US states have retained the target, and global climate action will continue regardless of Trump's actions. 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Both Joyce and McCormack say the net zero target and associated renewable energy rollout is devastating regional Australia. The Institute of Public Affairs, a prominent right-wing think tank, this week launched a documentary making similar claims. Joyce cited division in rural communities over renewable energy. In reality, there is significant support in regional Australia for such technology. A poll last year by Farmers for Climate Action found 70% of regional Australians in renewable energy zones support the development of renewable energy projects on local farmland. Joyce also pointed to "the removal of agricultural land from production" to support his stance. However, analysis shows very little farmland is required for the clean energy transition. What's more, the cost of inaction is high. Climate change is disproportionately affecting cost of living for regional households - for example, due to higher insurance premiums. Joyce also appears deaf to the myriad regional voices calling for stronger climate action. The Mackay Conservation Group, for example, is challenging Whitehaven's Winchester South coal mine in Queensland's Land Court. Similarly, an environment group based in the NSW Hunter Valley this week successfully appealed the expansion of MACH Energy's Mount Pleasant coal mine. Clearly, the efforts of Joyce and McCormack to undermine Australia's net zero goal are not backed by evidence. The Coalition must heed the facts - not backbench pressure - as it weighs its climate and energy policy. Only then can Australia avoid reigniting the divisive climate wars that stalled progress and positioned Australia as a global laggard. Likewise, the Albanese government must not be distracted from the climate action task. Australia's next round of climate targets should be based on the best available science, and make a meaningful, credible contribution to the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

Guilty verdict has wiped the creepy smile off Gareth Ward's face. Now he must resign
Guilty verdict has wiped the creepy smile off Gareth Ward's face. Now he must resign

Sydney Morning Herald

time39 minutes ago

  • Sydney Morning Herald

Guilty verdict has wiped the creepy smile off Gareth Ward's face. Now he must resign

Most days for the past two months, Gareth Ward has walked into a Sydney courtroom wearing a huge smile and giving an occasional wave to the cameras. It has been a jarring and creepy display from an MP on trial for serious sexual assault offences. By last Friday, the smile had been wiped from his face after a jury found the former Liberal minister-turned independent MP indecently assaulted an 18-year-old man at his Shoalhaven home on the South Coast in 2013 three times, and had sexual intercourse without consent with a 24-year-old political staffer in Potts Point in 2015. He remains on bail until a detention application is made by prosecutors on Wednesday. The former minister for families, communities and disability services during Gladys Berejiklian's second term as premier was charged with the offences in 2022. He was suspended from parliament but returned after his astonishing re-election in the seat of Kiama at the March 2023 poll. Ward has also been caught up in all manner of other scandals, but nothing that meets the threshold of a criminal offence. Friday's guilty verdict should rid Macquarie Street of him once and for all. Ward has so far shown no interest in resigning, and parliament has limited options to force him out. Premier Chris Minns has demanded Ward resign. On Monday, Minns rightly said NSW was in a 'ridiculous' situation where someone convicted of incredibly serious sexual assault offences could remain a member of parliament. 'You name me one workplace in the world where that person would continue to be an employee facing that kind of jail time,' he said. Opposition Leader Mark Speakman also demanded Ward quit. 'There is no excuse for the criminal behaviour which the jury has found occurred beyond reasonable doubt – a complete abuse of power which has no place anywhere, let alone by those entrusted by the public to represent them.' In NSW, an MP is unable to stay in parliament if they make an allegiance to a foreign power, are declared bankrupt or are convicted of an 'infamous crime' or offence punishable by imprisonment for a term of five years or more. Ward should resign. While he may not be expelled by parliament, he will almost certainly be suspended, meaning he can't properly represent the electorate while he exhausts all legal options, including a potential appeal.

Guilty verdict has wiped the creepy smile off Gareth Ward's face. Now he must resign
Guilty verdict has wiped the creepy smile off Gareth Ward's face. Now he must resign

The Age

time39 minutes ago

  • The Age

Guilty verdict has wiped the creepy smile off Gareth Ward's face. Now he must resign

Most days for the past two months, Gareth Ward has walked into a Sydney courtroom wearing a huge smile and giving an occasional wave to the cameras. It has been a jarring and creepy display from an MP on trial for serious sexual assault offences. By last Friday, the smile had been wiped from his face after a jury found the former Liberal minister-turned independent MP indecently assaulted an 18-year-old man at his Shoalhaven home on the South Coast in 2013 three times, and had sexual intercourse without consent with a 24-year-old political staffer in Potts Point in 2015. He remains on bail until a detention application is made by prosecutors on Wednesday. The former minister for families, communities and disability services during Gladys Berejiklian's second term as premier was charged with the offences in 2022. He was suspended from parliament but returned after his astonishing re-election in the seat of Kiama at the March 2023 poll. Ward has also been caught up in all manner of other scandals, but nothing that meets the threshold of a criminal offence. Friday's guilty verdict should rid Macquarie Street of him once and for all. Ward has so far shown no interest in resigning, and parliament has limited options to force him out. Premier Chris Minns has demanded Ward resign. On Monday, Minns rightly said NSW was in a 'ridiculous' situation where someone convicted of incredibly serious sexual assault offences could remain a member of parliament. 'You name me one workplace in the world where that person would continue to be an employee facing that kind of jail time,' he said. Opposition Leader Mark Speakman also demanded Ward quit. 'There is no excuse for the criminal behaviour which the jury has found occurred beyond reasonable doubt – a complete abuse of power which has no place anywhere, let alone by those entrusted by the public to represent them.' In NSW, an MP is unable to stay in parliament if they make an allegiance to a foreign power, are declared bankrupt or are convicted of an 'infamous crime' or offence punishable by imprisonment for a term of five years or more. Ward should resign. While he may not be expelled by parliament, he will almost certainly be suspended, meaning he can't properly represent the electorate while he exhausts all legal options, including a potential appeal.

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