The federal government's decision to introduce national firearms laws in 1996 after the Port Arthur tragedy was "too rushed", while the establishment of a $161 million national firearms registry is a waste of money, a Shooters Fishers Farmers (SFF) party candidate has said on the anniversary of the tragedy.
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Phillip Bigg, who is contesting the Legislative Council seat of Prosser for SFF this weekend, said an inquiry was needed to provide closure to the families of Port Arthur victims, and to get to the bottom of what really happened 28 years ago today.
He said the the 1996 National Firearms Agreement, formulated by an emergency meeting of state and territory police ministers on May 10 1996, 12 days after the event, was rushed.
"I can't remember the exact timeframes, but there wasn't any time for consultations for any of the Firearms Act," Mr Bigg said.
He said the national firearms registry was a waste because police in every state and territory already have access to information about who owns which firearms.
"All they are doing is effectively gathering all of the information that they already have from the states and putting it into a database," he said.
"How the hell does it cost that much? This has nothing to do with community safety at all."
Mr Bigg's comments followed a social media post on Monday morning by former SFF Clark candidate Adrian Pickin about the anniversary.
"It was a sad day for many. The resulting knee jerk reaction by the then PM Howard was a massive government overreach, a failure," Mr Pickin wrote.
"Remember the murderer didn't have a firearms license and it's time there was a Royal Commission into the event."
Mr Bigg echoed the call for some kind of inquiry into the events at Port Arthur.
"After the stabbings in Sydney, people were calling for an inquiry as soon as possible to give closure to the families.
"But when they talk about it with Port Arthur, it's 'oh no, it hurts them too much, we can't do that,'" Mr Bigg said.
"It's just not right, one scenario to the other."
In the post, Mr Pickin claimed that the federal government's move to ban certain firearms in 1996 had been an over-reaction.