Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie says the first and only deal so far negotiated between the commonwealth and NSW to buy back guns in the wake of the Bondi terror attack might not work with the constitution.
The scheme will give licence holders a fixed compensation fee based on their type of firearm when they surrender it to NSW police.
McKenzie tells the ABC’s AM program that the deal doesn’t take into account the cost of firearm accessories and falls foul of a provision in the constitution that requires fair compensation:
double quotation markDoes a buyback need to be on just terms? Yes, it does. Does it need to ensure that market value is paid to Australians for their own assets? Of course it does. And under the federal constitution, that’s a requirement.
If that sounds a little familiar to you, it’s the same argument Darryl Kerrigan (or rather his more erudite lawyer) made in the film The Castle: that the commonwealth may acquire property on “just terms”, as set out in section 51(xxxi).
