For Walter Mikac, the gun reform that followed the Port Arthur massacre was the slimmest of silver linings to come from that day.
After a gunman killed 35 people, including his wife, Nanette, and two young daughters, Alannah and Madeline, Mikac became one of the strongest voices on the need for better gun laws across Australia.
Almost 30 years after he first lobbied the then prime minister, John Howard, on the need for tighter gun controls, Mikac is again entering the public fray, alarmed by the gun lobby’s push for new hunting laws in New South Wales.
For Mikac it is frustrating and disheartening.
“I would happily just go off into the sunset and get on with my normal life but I was quite blind-sided by the extent of this bill,” he says.
“All it is really is a wishlist for the gun lobby and a weakening of the laws.”
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Praised by the shooting industry as potentially the “biggest victory for hunters” in two decades, the NSW “conservation hunting” bill was introduced by the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party MP Robert Borsak in May.
To the surprise of many, the NSW Labor government under the premier, Chris Minns, agreed to support the bill – albeit with amendments – which will expand access for the hunting of feral animals in state forests and crown land.
Australia has never had a legal “right to bear arms” but the bill would enshrine the “right to hunt” in law – deviating from a key principle underpinning the national firearms agreement.
“This [national firearms agreement] is something as all Australians we should be incredibly proud of, and we just want to enshrine that as the legacy,” Mikac says.
“We don’t want that to be like a statue that has had big chunks taken off – like the arms ripped off, or parts of it taken to with a jackhammer,” he said.
“Let’s leave it. Let’s leave that as a monument. It needs to stay for all those people who lost their lives that day. All the first responders, and the people who have suffered right across the rest of their lives – not excluding myself – missing out on all those events with my daughters, and my wife, like a life sentence that doesn’t go away.
“So we just need to keep our guard up, and try and leave the legacy that we’ve got from Port Arthur in place. There’s a danger in being complacent.”
The pro-gun lobby continues to enjoy an outsized political influence in NSW, thanks to the two seats held by the Shooters party in the state’s upper house.
The government does not have a majority in the upper house and its support for the new hunting laws has been seen by some as an attempt to win over the Shooters party for an unrelated workers compensation reform bill.
Both Borsak and Minns have denied there is a deal.
“We are not a lobby, we are a political movement. We are a culture and we have been in the parliament for 30 years,” Borsak said.
Gun control advocates and conservationists are equally alarmed at the push to strengthen the hand of hunters.
The bill’s intent to recognise “the right of citizens to hunt for cultural and recreational reasons” is of particular alarm to public safety advocates, who fear the bill would undermine the national firearms agreement.
Gun Control Australia has labelled the legislation “the most regressive attack on Australian gun laws in over a decade”.
“The national firearms agreement … states that gun ownership is a privilege, not a right, and is conditional on the overriding principle of public safety,” said GCA’s president, Tim Quinn.
“Enshrining a ‘right to hunt’ in law would be directly contrary to these principles, and signal an intent by the NSW government to depart from the national firearms safety framework that has reduced gun-related deaths and harm for decades.”
Borsak has rejected the criticism, saying the bill would have no impact on firearm legislation, calling the enshrined right “aspirational”.
“Where in the national firearms agreement does it say you are not allowed to hunt?” he said.
“In fact, the National Firearms Act actually underpins the right to hunt because one of the key genuine reasons is the ability to obtain a licence on the basis of controlling game and feral animals,” Borsak told Guardian Australia.
“The right in this bill is an aspiration, and doesn’t give us any ability to do any more than what we are currently doing,” he said.
The group argues that legalising the right to hunt could have implications for other laws directly targeting gun control.
For example, the laws that came out of the national firearms agreement talk about “a genuine reason” to obtain a firearm.
But the bill amends the Weapons Prohibition Act 1998 to provide that conservation hunting may be considered a genuine reason for the police commissioner to issue a permit for the possession and use of a prohibited weapon.
The bill also abolishes the existing Game and Pest Management Advisory Board and replaces it with a new hunting authority, which would have half of its members directly appointed by hunting organisations.
Environmental groups warn that trying to control feral species using amateurs is fraught with danger and doomed to failure.
The Invasive Species Council chief executive, Jack Gough, said the gun lobby was trying to boost hunting’s social licence by linking it to feral animal control. He said the proposed new conservation hunting authority could act as a “propaganda unit”, while undermining feral animal programs including aerial shooting and baiting.
“What I am seeing is concerted effort from the shooting lobby to change the conversation – to rebadge hunting as conservation work, but let’s be clear – this is greenwashing,” Gough said.
“Across the board we know that amateur hunting does not work when it comes to managing feral animals because it is ad hoc and thinly spread and is not an effective control mechanism.”
Borsak said hunters were the “original conservationists” and the bill was for “the good of the Australian native environment”.
“Hunting doesn’t need a social licence, it has had one for a million years, and all we are doing is continuing that process in NSW.”
He said the Invasive Species Council was “part of the Green agenda”.
The government’s Natural Resources Council told a parliamentary committee in early August that there was no evidence that amateur hunting would assist in the control of feral animals and instead could hinder aerial shooting programs.
Critics of the bill warn that by creating a publicly funded body charged with “promoting research into the benefits of hunting” and “representing the interests of licensed game hunters” the government will be handing a public megaphone to a narrow stakeholder group.
John Howard, who pushed through Australia’s strict gun controls, said the establishment of the authority would amount to funding “a gun lobby”.
Minns has denied he is creating additional rights for hunters or that the new hunting body does anything other than replace another board that deals with feral animals.
“I just want to make the point that we will not be voting to water down gun laws in New South Wales,” he said. “That’s very important that they stay consistent following the horror of the Port Arthur massacre.
“I’ve said in the past, look, is there a way of allowing them to shoot a lot of these pests that cause significant damage to private land and public land? I’m open to looking at that, but I don’t want a government-funded gun lobby.”
He has also said the government will not be supporting parts of the legislation that could allow the use of silencers, night-vision goggles or ballistic vests.
“I mean, we don’t do that in New South Wales,” he said. “I’m not going to support it, and the police don’t either.”
The NSW Greens senator David Shoebridge criticised Labor for potentially “prejudicing public safety” through its support of the bill, calling it “the worst of politics”.
“It is a poor excuse from the Labor government to throw the gun lobby a bone,” Shoebridge told Guardian Australia.
“We have a lot to be proud of with what Australia has achieved but there are always forces trying to unpick these kinds of positive social reforms, often for commercial or political reasons, and it is no different with gun laws.”
Borsak said his political party had “no commercial alliances whatsoever”, saying their party was funded by grassroots members.
Much will depend on the opposition, whose National party members are under intense pressure from recreational shooters to get onboard with the bill. If they choose to support it, the bill will pass easily.
Borsak said he expected the bill to pass with government and opposition support, and only minor amendment.
The parliamentary committee is expected to report on 8 September and the legislation is expected to follow shortly after.
