Sydney siege recommendations in the ‘too hard’ basket?

It has been more than two years since the Lindt Cafe Sydney siege – where a crazed terrorist murdered a young man with an illegal sawn-off shotgun – supposedly sparked off the need for a review into Australia’s national firearm regulations.

Now it appears that the Government has forgotten the four main recommendations from the Joint Commonwealth and New South Wales review, which stated:

1. The Commonwealth, States and Territories should simplify the regulation of the legal firearms market through an update of the technical elements of the National Firearms Agreement.

2. CrimTrac, in cooperation with Commonwealth and State Police and law enforcement agencies, should prioritise bringing the National Firearms Interface into operation by the end of 2015.

3. States and Territories’ police forces should conduct an urgent audit of their firearms data holdings before the National Firearms Interface is operational where this has not already occurred.

4. The Commonwealth and the States and Territories should give further consideration to measures to deal with illegal firearms.

The SSAA cannot see any of these recommendations addressed in the recently revised National Firearms Agreement, particularly the need to simplify the regulations of legally owned firearms and taking measures to deal with illegal firearm use. It appears the recommendations have been thrown into the ‘too hard’ basket.

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