As MPs get into the swing of things on their first week back in parliament following the summer break, one of the items up for consideration is the first reading of the Firearms Prohibition Orders Legislation Bill.
Introduced by Police Minister Poto Williams as part of gun law reform efforts in the wake of 2019’s mosque terror attack, the Bill will make it illegal for high-risk people to own firearms by introducing firearms prohibition orders.
“This bill will ensure that a person subject to a firearms prohibition order will not be able to use, access, or be around guns. Unless a court order says otherwise, they also will not be able to live in or visit locations where there are firearms, or associate with someone who has them.
Minister of Police Poto Williams in the chamber. (file photo) Photo: ©VNP / Phil Smith
“The bill will make it a criminal offence to breach a firearms prohibition order, and also a crime to knowingly supply firearms to those that have a firearms prohibition order placed on them,” Williams explained.
While the opposition National Party has signalled it will support the Bill, it has criticised Labour for not doing more sooner on this problem, and for not bringing this legislation to the House sooner.
National has previously promoted two member’s bills on gun controls that focused specifically on gang members, and Mark Mitchell, a former police officer, zeroed in on that aspect.
“We know that there is a more sinister element to what they do. They've got international networks, they're well-funded, they're violent, they're willing to carry firearms, and they're also willing to use them,” he said.
“But we've had two members' bills come into this House, two firearms prohibition orders bills come into this House, both sponsored by members of the Opposition.
“This Government voted both of them down, and they voted both of them down on the promise that they'd introduce their own bill. Call me cynical, but this bill was introduced on the last sitting day of last year. Their priorities are all wrong.”
Another former police officer in the House, Labour’s Greg O’Connor begged to differ with Mitchell’s claim that armed crime began to surge in New Zealand four years ago, saying it dates back to the last National Government’s time in office, around 2013.
But all MPs who spoke on this bill appeared in agreement that armed crime has increased.
Labour MP Willow-Jean Prime in Select Committee Photo: ©VNP / Phil Smith
“Just today, actually, I saw a headline that I found quite alarming, and it was about knowingly supplying a firearm to gang members,” Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime said.
“ It was timely, because we're talking about this bill—we're debating this legislation. It has really concerned me that I feel like I'm seeing an increasing number of reports in my communities in Northland—shared by Northland police, for example—of more gun violence and more gun seizures. There was a report just yesterday in Kaitāia, and five days ago there was another report in the paper. There were reports in December; and there were reports in November.”
Listening to discussion about the problem of gun violence and the challenge facing police in responding to it, one couldn’t avoid the ongoing anti-vaccine mandate protest on the grounds of parliament to which dozens of police have been deployed since parliament reconvened on Tuesday, even if MPs barely alluded to it in the house.
Some elements of the protestors have been obstructive and intimidating to members of the public moving around the area, and the Speaker has authorised closing Parliament’s grounds to the public, if police deem it necessary to clear the lawn where hundreds of protestors are camped.
MPs have expressed gratitude to police for their efforts to hold off the protestors at the steps of Parliament.
The Opposition however has warned that establishing firearms prohibition orders legislation without giving the police new search powers would render the new powers toothless.
“Support your police, give them the tools that they need,” Mark Mitchell urged.
National MP Mark Mitchell in the House Photo: © VNP / Phil Smith
“This is good. We're going to support it. We'll support it through select committee. We have to make some changes because you haven't got a warrantless search power in there.
“What do the front-line police officers say? I'll tell you what they say, because I was talking to the police officers that worked on the Matthew Hunt case and the David Goldfinch case. Just to remind the House, Matthew was shot and killed in broad daylight on the streets of West Auckland by a gang member that had two military-style rifles…. But the reality of it is, they needed to have these types of orders, this sort of ability, two or three years ago.”
The Bill will now go to the Justice Committee who will be asking for public submissions on it shortly.
