7. KEITH LOCKE (Green) Link to this
to the Minister of Police
How much did the police contribute to the budget of the international firearms safety seminar currently taking place in Christchurch, and what other support did they provide?
Hon PHIL GOFF (Acting Minister of Police) Link to this
The firearms safety seminar was jointly organised and coordinated by the Mountain Safety Council, the Council of Licensed Firearm Owners, and the New Zealand Police. The police contributed $20,000 towards the cost of the seminar.
Does the funding of keynote speaker, Canadian Gary Mauser, indicate that the Government supports his view that reducing criminal violence is helped when Governments “encourage responsible citizens to carry concealed handguns”; and is there any connection between the invitation to Gary Mauser and the fact that he and conference organiser, Inspector Joe Green, who is also in charge of gun registration for the New Zealand Police, went off on a hunting trip together last year?
The answer to the first question is no. But let me remind the member that he risks misleading the House and the country by quoting five out of 22 presenters. I wonder why he did not mention that other presenters include Professor Annette Beautrais, who supports tougher legislation in New Zealand because it has helped reduce firearms-related suicide; David Capie, who has supported improved firearms laws, secure armouries, and improved weapon controls to stop illicit small-arms trade in the Pacific; and Tsutomu Ishiguri, who is the director of the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific. Clearly, a wide range of views are being expressed at this seminar. The Government does not stand behind, or vet, the view of anybody who turns up at a seminar to debate what is best to make firearms safe. In relation to the second part of the question, I regret the fact that the member is reflecting on the integrity of Inspector Joe Green, simply because he did something totally legitimate, which was to go hunting with Mr Mauser. I would no more hold that against him than if I saw him having a beer in the pub with an anti-firearms person.
Does it not undermine and run counter to the main purpose of the seminar as the Minister has just outlined it—that is, firearm safety—to fund keynote speakers such as John Lott, who is the author of a book called More Guns, Less Crime, American National Rifle Association lobbyist Mark Barnes, and Colin Greenwood, who describes the British handgun ban as “a pathetic irrelevance”; and what does the Minister think it achieves when five of the 11 keynote speakers at the conference are extreme pro-gun lobbyists?
The member is compounding the error that I just drew to his attention. He is selectively taking some—five out of 22—presenters and facilitators and saying that he does not agree with their views. I do not happen to agree with their views either, but a range of people are invited to the seminar to debate and, as the programme says—if the member had bothered reading it—to “exchange ideas, concepts, strategies and procedures for firearm safety”. One does not get a debate if one only chooses like-minded people who all say the same thing.
I seek leave to table photographs from the website of Canadian Gary Mauser of him and Inspector Joe Green on a hunting trip together.
Madam SPEAKERI seek leave to table an article from the website of Canadian Gary Mauser in which he explains how one reduces criminal violence by encouraging citizens to have concealed handguns.
I seek leave to table the biographies and abstracts on the Christchurch seminar website that explain the extreme pro-gun views of the five out of 11 keynote speakers I have mentioned.
I seek leave to table the full programme of the international firearm safety seminar, which sets out the seminar’s objectives—which are purely focused on firearm safety—and gives a balanced account of the wide range of speakers who have turned up to that seminar.