Three Liberal MPs cross floor to oppose tighter gun laws

Three NSW Liberal MPs have voted against a motion supporting tighter gun laws, with one declaring the reforms would not have prevented the Bondi terror attacks.

Tanya Davies, Wendy Tuckerman and Robyn Preston crossed the floor on the government motion on Tuesday, highlighting growing angst among Liberals MPs about the political fallout from the legislation. The Nationals have opposed the laws since they were first drafted back in December.

The public protest comes amid anxiety within the Liberals about the gun laws, which were rushed through parliament as part of an omnibus bill during the week of Christmas. On Monday, Tuckerman inadvertently emailed all the state’s 93 electorate offices, revealing she was pushing to halt the gun buyback.

In response to the shooting of 15 people attending Hanukkah celebrations in Bondi on December 14, Premier Chris Minns announced he would limit gun ownership to four firearms for recreational shooters, or 10 for farmers and sporting shooters, while tightening other controls.

Despite the Nationals opposing the amendment bill because of concerns about the impact on farmers at the time, the Liberals supported it.

Opposition leader Kellie Sloane has since reiterated her support but has indicated the party would like the laws to be revisited “if it provides better laws”.

Introduced by Labor MP Edmond Atalla, the public interest debate reiterated “support for the tighter gun laws” and noted “that the new legislation increases oversight and minimises risk, ensuring police have the tools they need”.

Opposition police spokesman Anthony Roberts unsuccessfully tried to amend the motion to include that concerns were raised by the Coalition about “unintended consequences of the Government’s rushed gun laws” when the legislation was introduced on Tuesday. He also noted a 71 per cent increase in gun licence applications in NSW in the month after the Bondi terror attacks.

After voting against the government’s original motion, Davies took to Facebook to explain her stance, saying the government’s laws targeted “law-abiding citizens” and did not address extremist Islam, which she characterised as “the real problem” which led to the Bondi terror attacks.

“Today, was the first opportunity I had to publicly show how bad these rushed gun laws are and how I am standing with the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding gun owners and gun shop small businesses around our state,” she wrote.

“Let’s be clear – we’ve seen extremist Islam use all manner of weaponry to carry out their ideology, not just guns.”

With the government, inner-city crossbenchers and most of the Liberals voting for the motion, only 17 MPs were left voting against, including regional independent MPs Roy Butler, Helen Dalton and Phil Donato.

The Liberals’ fraying support for the legislation comes ahead of a proposed buyback of excess guns in September. The opposition has been critical of the lack of detail surrounding the buyback, including on its cost.

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