Malinauskas ‘stands ready’ to recall SA Parliament after Bondi massacre
The Premier will recall State Parliament if there’s a need to pass laws to tighten gun controls in the state following the Bondi attack saying “we’re not going to be sitting around watching others go past us”.
Premier Peter Malinauaskas said he would recall State Parliament should other states surpass South Australia in gun control measures, as his counterpart in New South Wales prepares to impose the nation’s strongest gun laws.
However, speaking to ABC Radio today in the aftermath of the terror attack at Bondi over the weekend, the Premier said other states were playing “catch-up to the standards that we’ve already got in South Australia”.
“We have a state that currently has the strictest gun laws in the country on our advice of the South Australian Police,” Malinauskas said.
“We will see what the New South Wales Parliament passes next week, and assess that against our own legislation here in South Australia.
“We’re not going to be sitting around watching others go past us. If we feel the need to recall Parliament, we will.”
NSW parliament would be recalled as soon as possible for laws to crack down on gun ownership and licensing, including prohibiting non-citizens from holding firearm permits, the state’s Premier Chris Minns said earlier this week.
“I’m determined to bring in the toughest gun laws in Australia, and they’ll be significantly tightened in NSW,” Minns said.
“If we can craft a law that the police commissioner can say, ‘I’ve got concerns about this person, I don’t want them having access to a gun’, notwithstanding the fact that they don’t have a criminal record, that’s the kind of legislation that we want to see,” he said.
The NSW Premier also flagged he would pass new laws to block protests after terror attacks, saying he was concerned “a mass demonstration in this combustible situation… could light a flame that would be impossible to extinguish”.
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Malinauskas said South Australian protest laws were able to manage any protestors who would be obstructionist or display hate symbols, such as the swastika.
“We’ve got those powers in South Australia, the Police Commissioner stands ready to deploy those authorities and powers if people gather at a protest and rather than peacefully protesting they take another level of extremism that would seek to offend or impinge upon other members of the community, whether they be Jewish or otherwise,” he said.
– With AAP
