Mr TONY SMITH(4.29 p.m.) —I rise to support the motion. In particular, I want to put on record my heartfelt sympathy to the families and friends of all the victims of the dreadful massacre at Port Arthur.

It was almost impossible to contemplate that such a thing could happen in this country. Even as someone who has practised criminal law for about 13 years, I found it very difficult to realise the magnitude of that sort of an act, its consequences for so many people and for our whole nation, namely, a loss of innocence.

Over the years there have been a number of quite tragic events going beyond family violence. Over the years there has been a number of mass shootings. At the time there was a lot of talk about those events but, ultimately, nothing was done when the political imperative required that something be done. The community cannot tolerate the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, in particular, the weapon that was used at Port Arthur.

It has been said in the community that this legislation will not prevent a recurrence of the Port Arthur massacre. It is probably fair to say that no legislation could guarantee that. But, equally, it cannot be said that this sort of legislation might not prevent such a tragedy from recurring. That, really, is the point that has to be noted. The proposed legislation might prevent a Port Arthur from occurring. So the political leaders around this country on both sides of the parliaments have supported the need to bring in legislation to try to prevent such an eventuality from recurring.

There has been a lot of ill-informed comment. I guess as members we have all experienced a flood of letters into our electorate offices. I had an unpleasant experience last week when somebody sent me a white feather on a blank sheet of paper with a black dot in the middle. I describe that experience as unpleasant because of its connotations. However, it has strengthened my resolve to support the legislation. Far from any cowardly connotations that that sort of letter appears to convey, if anything, I would suggest that members who have received that sort of rubbish have had their resolve strengthened to see this matter through to its end.

As the Prime Minister (Mr Howard) said, if the measure is not accepted by the Australian people as a whole, the Australian people can vote on that at the appropriate time. But it is my view that the Australian people as a whole do accept the need for this measure.

It should also be noted that over the years in my practice it was always my experience that the people who threatened these sorts of acts never carried them out. It was always the people you would never expect who carried out these sorts of acts. So much, really, for the suggestion that we should have a register of all people who have had some psychological or psychiatric counselling, or something of that nature. How would you ever identify those people?

At the end of the day, I support this motion of condolence to the people of Port Arthur—the families, victims and friends of those people. But it is also a recognition of the services performed by the police and emergency services, and a recognition of the bipartisan approach to the need to address adequate law reform in this area.

Debate adjourned.