February 5, 2026 | GippslandFarmer

Member for Eastern Victoria Region, Melina Bath, stood with Field and Game member and law-abiding firearm owner Ryan Weeratunge on the steps of state Parliament to launch a new e-petition calling on the Allan Labor government to properly enforce existing gun laws and reject rushed, ineffective changes. In the wake of the devastating tragedy and amid growing concerns about extremist terrorism and hate crime, Ms Bath said community safety must always come first - but warned against hurried legislative responses that risk missing the real problem. “What we witnessed was horrific, and Australians rightly want action to prevent terrorism, combat antisemitism and ensure Victorians are safe,” Ms Bath said. “But changing laws in a hurry, without evidence, risks penalising responsible, lawabiding firearm owners like Ryan, while failing to address the failures in intelligence, monitoring and enforcement that have underpinned serious incidents.” Mr Weeratunge is a licensed, law-abiding Australian who hunts duck and deer for his table and shares his harvest with family and friends. Like thousands of regional Victorians, he complies with Victoria’s already strict firearms laws and storage requirements. Ms Bath said Victoria already has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation, and that past serious incidents have repeatedly involved individuals known to authorities -pointing to breakdowns in compliance, resourcing and enforcement, not gaps in legislation. “The Nationals strongly support decisive action to prevent terrorism and keep Victorians safe, but any review of firearms laws must be evidence-led and free from pre-determined assumptions about lawful owners,” Ms Bath said. The petition calls on the state government to: Properly enforce existing firearms laws and fix compliance and resourcing gaps; Ensure the current Victorian review is evidence-based and transparent; Reject new restrictions unless clear, publicly available evidence shows they will improve safety, and; Guarantee genuine consultation with lawful firearm owners, sporting shooters and hunting organisations. Member for Gippsland Darren Chester has warned the federal government's proposed changes to firearms laws will unfairly target rural and regional Australians, while failing to address the causes of the Bondi terrorist attack. Mr Chester accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of using gun law reform as a distraction from the government's failure to act decisively on the growing threat of anti-Semitism and Islamic extremism in Australia. Mr Chester said Australians expected strong leadership focused on preventing extremist violence, not rushed and ill-conceived policy changes that penalised people who have done nothing wrong. "Instead of confronting the hard issues around extremism, social cohesion and national security, the Prime Minister appears to be pursuing a knee-jerk response that unfairly targets law-abiding firearm owners, particularly in regional and rural communities like Gippsland," he said. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said, a generation after the previous reforms, it was time to update gun laws "to keep our country safe". "We have to address the motivation and the method of these crimes. No one can justify why this household had so many firearms," Mr Burke said. Mr Chester said firearms were used legitimately across Gippsland for pest control, farming, sport, and hunting, and these activities had nothing to do with the extremist violence seen at Bondi. "It wasn't farmers or sporting shooters who carried out this terrorist attack," he said. "This was an act of violent extremism, and the government's focus should be on strengthening counter-terrorism measures, enforcing existing laws, and implementing the findings of its own Anti-Semitism Envoy, not taking rights away from law-abiding gun owners." Mr Chester said the Liberal-National Coalition remained open to sensible, evidence-based reforms that closed genuine loopholes, but would not support measures that stripped rights from responsible firearm owners without any consultation.

February 5, 2026

Bondi: guns laws “not the problem”

Katrina BRANDON and David BRAITHWAITE RECENT events at Bondi have prompted reviews into gun laws across the country. Federal and state governments are considering

Locals deployed to bushfire zones

Posted By: Gippsland Farmer

Katrina BRANDON FIGHTING on the front lines, local fire brigades have put their hands up to send crew members to the bushfires, which are

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