Progress in Austrailia

[Karl/Pa.]

New gun laws passed in NSW parliament will start unravelling strict measures brought in after the Port Arthur massacre, the NSW Greens say.

A bill, passed on Thursday by the upper house, removes the 28-day waiting period for people with a registration waiting for a second or subsequent gun.

The Shooters Party-initiated bill also removes the need to register guns made prior to 1900 and introduces more exemptions for people without a licence to participate at shooting clubs.

Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said the changes brought NSW "closer to the US with its liberal attitude to firearm use".

Gun laws around the nation were changed after 35 people were killed and 37 wounded on April 28, 1996, by lone gunman Martin Bryant at the historic Port Arthur tourist site in Tasmania.

Bryant is serving 35 life sentences in Tasmania's Risdon Prison, and will never be eligible for parole.

"The Shooters Party's private member bill represents the first unravelling of national uniform gun laws developed after the Port Arthur massacre," Ms Rhiannon said.

The bill was passed with the support of both the government and the coalition.

Ms Rhiannon said the government backed the bill to gain Shooters Party support for its electricity privatisation plans.

The government does not hold a majority in the upper house and will need the support of minor parties to pass its planned sell-off of the state's electricity retailers.

The Shooters Party bill will now go before the lower house.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/080619/2/17cr0.html