Police Minister’s ‘statesman’ offer to back national gun buy-back as other states get cold feet

Roger Cook and Reece Whitby have warned against a ‘red versus blue’ American-style gun debate in Australia, as they showed off the results of WA’s latest gun buyback.

Roger Cook and Reece Whitby boasted that the number of licenced firearms in WA has been slashed by 24 per cent, after the surrender of 83,764 weapons - that included more than 57,000 rifles, 19,000 shotguns and 7,500 handguns.

“It will make it harder for guns to fall into the wrong hands,” Mr Whitby said.

“I am certain that this buyback and our new laws will save the lives of Western Australians. In fact, they may have already done so.”

He called for a united approach to national gun reform on Tuesday, a day after Queensland, the Northern Territory and Tasmania rejected the Albanese Government’s current proposal for a jointly-funded national buyback scheme.

In Canberra, tighter gun regulations passed the lower house 96-45 with the Greens’ support while the Coalition did not support the bill.

“In the wake of Bondi it should not be a blue state or a red state issue, we need to work together,” Mr Whitby said.

He confirmed WA is willing to take part in what would be the third gun buy-back in two years in WA.

“This is another opportunity, giving more guns out of the community, off the street, handed in by people who want to do so why wouldn’t we,” the Minister said.

But he was unsure how much it could cost.

“We will wait to see what the final arrangement is given. We’ll be happy to look at what the final arrangement is with other states, because you know, you’d assume uniform approach across Federation,” Mr Whitby said.

He said gun reform is “hard” but necessary and revealed WA has offered to play a “statesman role” and assist other states.

Senior police called the result of the WA buyback a success and issued a warning to anyone retaining illegal firearms.

“The laws now are very, very strict, and we will find you and we will catch you,” Assistant Police Commissioner Peter Healy said.

He said there were lessons for other states to take out of the public backlash and technical problems that plagued the rollout of WA’s laws, that restrict how many firearms an individual can legally hold.

“There’s some communications earlier that we could have done better,” Mr Healy said.