Police Minister Felix Ellis has doubled down on his decision to post a photo of himself holding a firearm, dismissing criticism from Labor and the Greens as proof they are ‘out of touch with rural Tasmania’.
Ellis was responding to comments from Labor shadow police minister Jen Butler, who on Thursday called the post “really not appropriate” for a police minister and accused him of being “trigger-happy.”
“I think the trigger happy photograph of a police minister holding a shotgun sends very much the wrong message,” she said yesterday.
Butler said Tasmania now has the highest rate of registered firearm ownership and the highest rate of firearm theft per capita in the country, with more firearms in the community than before 1996.
“We have had a 104% increase in firearms being used in family violence incidents here in Tasmania,” she said.
“We’ve also had over a 60% increase of firearms being used as a weapon.”
Butler said Labor wants a cap on the number of firearms owned by registered holders, a position also backed by the Police Commissioner.
“No one’s saying that you can’t go shooting anymore in Tasmania if you’re a firearm owner,” she said.
“What we’re calling for is for there to be a cap on the number of firearms that are owned by registered firearm owners in Tasmania.”
Ellis hit back today, saying Butler had described the image as showing a shotgun when it was a rifle.
“The fact that the shadow police spokesperson doesn’t even know the difference between a shotgun and a rifle, I think will be hugely concerning for Tasmanians,” he said.
“There are 37,000 licensed firearms owners in Tasmania. They’re law-abiding people. They’re the people who feed us.”
He said Labor had been “avoiding” firearms owners and refusing to meet with them.
“Jen Butler wouldn’t even pass our firearms basics safety course with the level of information that she has about this and yet she wants to bring in legislative change that would affect the lives of thousands of firearms owners,” he said.
Ellis said caps were not the answer because they do not apply to criminals, noting other states including Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and the Northern Territory had reached the same conclusion after receiving similar police advice.
He noted more than 11,000 people had signed what he described as one of the biggest petitions in the state’s history opposing the proposed changes.
The government’s Firearms Amendment Bill consultation period closed today, with hundreds of submissions understood to have been lodged.
Greens MP Vica Bayley accused Ellis of pandering to the gun lobby and called on the Premier to rein him in.
Ellis rejected that, saying a Northwest Firearms Collector Guild showing historic firearms at the Ulverstone RSL was hardly a gun lobby.
Asked whether the government was open to amending the legislation based on submissions, Ellis said he was listening but maintained firm opposition to caps.
“We have a strong view that caps are not the answer because the caps don’t apply to the terrorists and the criminals,” he said.
In a statement to Pulse this afternoon, Butler suggested Ellis “should spend more time thinking about all Tasmanians; the victim-survivors of domestic violence involving a firearm, the Police Officers on the front line of firearm misuse and advice of his Police Commissioner recommending a cap on firearms, rather than thinking about me”.
“Felix Ellis and the Liberals are fighting for unlimited guns in the community,” she said.
“Labor doesn’t support that and Tasmanians don’t support that either.”
She said the National Firearms Agreement makes clear that “firearm possession and use is a privilege that is conditional on the overriding need to ensure public safety.”
