Tasmania’s police commissioner has stood by her call for a cap on the number of firearms a person can own, a position the government does not share.
Donna Adams told a budget estimates hearing in Hobart on Thursday that fewer guns would make the community safer.
Her view was first set out in a February letter to the police minister and premier, released under right-to-information laws in March.
Labor MP Jen Butler read the letter into the record. In it, Adams invoked the June 2025 murder of Constable Keith Smith and warned firearms posed a real and increased threat.
Adams told the hearing she had not shifted her view.
“There are more firearms in the community, there are more opportunities for those firearms to be stolen and fall into the wrong hands, there is more opportunity for those firearms to be used to perpetrate family violence,” she said.
“The more firearms in the community provides more opportunity for them to be either an enabler of crime or be able to be used as a threat or a weapon against police officers.”
She said officers shared her view and expected everything possible to be done to keep them safe.
“Our police officers … every day go to an incident that involves a firearm. And that is a potential compromise to their safety,” Adams said.
Statistics tabled at the hearing showed family violence offences involving a firearm had doubled from 69 to 140 over four years.
Tasmania also has the nation’s highest gun theft rate, with 29.3 firearms stolen per 100,000 people compared with the national average of 8.4.
National cabinet agreed to a suite of gun reforms after the Bondi Beach attack in December, which killed 15 people.
New South Wales led the push, capping ownership at four firearms for recreational hunters and reclassifying straight-pull rifles like those used in the attack.
Western Australia, which has the nation’s toughest gun laws, has done the same.
But Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Victoria have all rejected caps.
Canberra has offered to fund half a national buyback, but only if states adopt caps.
Police Minister Felix Ellis said he respected the commissioner’s advice but had to weigh broader interests.
“It’s not the number of firearms, it’s the hands that they’re in,” Ellis said.
“And in [the Bondi] case, the firearms were in the hands of terrorists who are known to federal agencies.”
He said a cap would unfairly penalise farmers, hunters and sporting shooters. Instead, Ellis backed tougher penalties for theft.
“People who steal firearms should be in jail,” he said. “And we have a challenge with firearms theft in Tasmania.”
“Therefore, we should increase the penalties for people who steal firearms so there is a strong deterrent.”
Ellis said a firearms reform bill would be introduced “in coming weeks”.
