Shooting is a “cultural practice” in Australia and controversial rapid-fire Adler shotguns are necessary for “hunting pigs in wheat”, the Victorian Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has said.
McKenzie took much of the spotlight in Monday night’s Q&A program, also facing a video question from her brother on the impact of the same-sex marriage plebiscite on his “emotional wellbeing”.
She said she was opposed to same-sex marriage, noting that “polls would suggest I’m in the minority” but that a binding plebiscite would “resolve the tension” between “our desire to respect the sovereign will of the Australian people, and our conscience in a representative democracy”.
McKenzie, one of the Coalition senators who had the task of filibustering through the first four hours of parliament on Monday, told the audience that permitting dealers to import the lever-action Adler shotguns did not weaken the gun laws put in place after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre and would not lead to an increase in crime, saying it was “hardly the weapon of choice for criminals”.
The Bendigo-based senator said gun owners had told her they wanted the Adler weapons for pig hunting, when they “need to get eight shots off quickly before they get into the scrub”.
Those damn agile pigs #qanda
— Georgie Burgess (@GeorgieBurgo) September 12, 2016
McKenzie made the comments after being shown a video clip of a man using a modified Adler to shoot an effigy of Gun Control Australia head Sam Lee.
The clip was from a video posted on YouTube apparently by the Queensland-based group Shooting Stuff Australia.
McKenzie said the video was “vile” and damaged the argument being put by responsible gun owners, but also defended it on grounds of free speech, saying there was “a lot of frustration out there around the misinformation that occurs out in the public on this issue”.
“But that’s quite confronting what they’ve chosen to do and how they’ve chosen to handle that situation,” she said.
Why do you feel that anyone should get access to firearms? @senbmckenzie responds #QandA https://t.co/e9JwS5SgBo
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) September 12, 2016
The Queensland Greens senator Larissa Waters, who was also on the panel, said the video was “disgusting”, “violent and insulting” and promoted violence against women. Another panellist, Rowan Dean, the editor of conservative political magazine the Spectator, objected to McKenzie’s characterisation of the video as free speech, saying it was “an appeal to go out and kill someone, which is repellent and repulsive”.
Rowan Dean just said something I agree with #qanda
— Heath Aston (@HeathJAston) September 12, 2016
McKenzie said reported increases in gun ownership were a “good thing” and would not increase rates of mass shootings or terrorism offences “any more than increasing car ownership will increase the risk of more deaths on the road”.
Legalising the Adler, she said, would not increase the risk it would end up in the hands of criminals or terrorists, because those groups used stolen firearms traded on the black market and legal, responsible gun owners protected their guns from theft.
The New South Wales Labor senator Doug Cameron compared McKenzie’s arguments to those used by the US National Rifle Association.
In response to a question about the need for greater cultural diversity in parliament, McKenzie said she was the first female federal Nationals member for Victoria in the party’s 100-year history.
“Is that why you carry a gun?” asked the host, Tony Jones.
“That’s how I got there, Tony,” McKenzie replied. “That’s how I got there.”
Dai Le, founder of the Diverse Australasian Women’s Network and a former Liberal member who was suspended from the party for 10 years for running for mayor against an endorsed Liberal party candidate in Sydney’s Fairfield, said there were structural barriers to entering parliament for women and people of diverse backgrounds.
Shouldn't we hear more about getting more multicultural people in Parliament? @dai_le responds #QandA https://t.co/VZssFs43hm
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) September 12, 2016
Le said she agreed to some extent with the former prime minister, John Howard, about the difficulty of achieving a gender balance in parliament because the system was “not very child-friendly”.
“It is a fact of society that the caring role, whatever people may say about it and whatever the causes are, women play a significantly greater part of fulfilling the caring role in our communities which inevitably place some limits on their capacity,” Howard said last week.
Waters rejected the argument that women’s capacity was inevitably limited and then announced she was expecting her second child, spurring a round of congratulations.
“I feel perfectly able to continue in my role,” Waters said. “I don’t feel like my capacity to do my job is in any way limited by that.”
McKenzie later answered the video question from her brother, Alistair McKenzie, who asked the panel what impact a plebiscite on same-sex marriage would have on his “emotional wellbeing” and that of other LGBTI people.
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, could declare the plebiscite will be non-binding, meaning that MPs would be allowed to vote with their conscience no matter the outcome.
Waters and Cameron said that, in that case, the matter should be decided by an ordinary parliamentary vote.
“When John Howard was prime minister he changed the definition of marriage without a plebiscite,” Cameron said. “Divorce laws were changed without a plebiscite. Why do Australians who happen to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transexual have to be treated any different to anyone else?”
