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Speaker 1: Good afternoon. The government has committed to completely overhauling our

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Speaker 1: gun laws. In the next steps, the Firearms Safety Authority

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Speaker 1: will be transferred from the police to a government department

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Speaker 1: and the entire Arms Act rewritten. Nicole McKee is the

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Speaker 1: Associate Minister for Justice Responsible here.

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Speaker 2: Hey Nicol, Hi, how are you doing, Heather?

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Speaker 1: I'm very well, thank you. So do you want to

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Speaker 1: take the cops out of the licensing process?

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Speaker 2: Yes? What we want to remove New Zealand Police from

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Speaker 2: the administration, regulation and policy making with firearms and allow

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Speaker 2: them to focus on enforcement of our laws and getting

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Speaker 2: the gangs away from the guns.

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Speaker 1: Why do you want to take them out of it?

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Speaker 2: Well, there is quite low trust and confidence with New

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Speaker 2: Zealand police and the licensed firearm owning community. I want

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Speaker 2: to make sure that when we do a full rewrite

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Speaker 2: of the arm Fact, that we have something that's fit

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Speaker 2: for purpose and that people can feel trust and security in.

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Speaker 2: At the moment, I don't think that they feel that,

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Speaker 2: and nor has that trust and confidence been rebuilt over

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Speaker 2: the last or five years. In fact, it's got worse.

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Speaker 2: We're seeing gangs with guns commit more crimes than ever before,

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Speaker 2: and we want police to focus on that as part

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Speaker 2: of their core business and move away from the policy

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Speaker 2: and regulation, so.

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Speaker 1: You'd be transferring it to is it THEDA.

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Speaker 2: We're going to look where the best fit is going

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Speaker 2: to be, and that could be the Department of Internal Affairs.

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Speaker 2: That's the first stop that we're going to look at,

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Speaker 2: but it may not be the end place for it,

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Speaker 2: but we will ascertain where the best fit is going

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Speaker 2: to be because we've got to make sure also that

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Speaker 2: police are able to access information to go after the criminals.

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Speaker 2: So we've got to make sure that we can have

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Speaker 2: those lines of communication open so that police can still

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Speaker 2: do their job.

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Speaker 1: Part of assessing whether a person can get a license

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Speaker 1: is to see whether they're a fit and proper person

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Speaker 1: to be able to handle a gun and be trusted

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Speaker 1: with a gun, Right, isn't it Isn't a police officer

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Speaker 1: a better place to make that kind of a judgment

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Speaker 1: call rather than a gray suit from the DIA.

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Speaker 2: Well, at the end of the day, we have the

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Speaker 2: crime carrier that they need to serve into and a

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Speaker 2: lot of that comes about by filling in the application

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Speaker 2: form and then doing the interviews. So really, if anybody

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Speaker 2: can ascertain whether somebody sit and proper by looking at

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Speaker 2: past history and also looking at the people that they're

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Speaker 2: working with. Now, it doesn't need to be a police officer,

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Speaker 2: it needs to be an intelligent person.

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Speaker 1: Now, listen on you. Are you still committed to getting

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Speaker 1: rid of the gun register?

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Speaker 2: Look, I would love to get rid of the full registry.

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Speaker 2: The way that it's being implemented, I personally don't think

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Speaker 2: that it sits for purpose. But at the end of

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Speaker 2: the day, we're in a coalition government and some of

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Speaker 2: my coalition partners think that it is. So we've we've

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Speaker 2: committed with each other to have a review to check

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Speaker 2: whether it is cost effective, whether it is contributing to

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Speaker 2: public safety, whether we are getting full compliance, and whether

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Speaker 2: it's fits for purpose. So at the end of the day,

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Speaker 2: I've committed to looking at what the review shows us

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Speaker 2: and whether or not we need to make changes, and

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Speaker 2: I hope my coalition partner will be on the same

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Speaker 2: track with that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. The reason I ask you that is because there

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Speaker 1: is a story in the papers. It was in the

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Speaker 1: Herald just about I think it might have been Monday,

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Speaker 1: and it was a case of a seventy five year

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Speaker 1: old Aucklaman and his daughter who bought thirteen firearms in

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Speaker 1: three months from Gun City as straw buyers. Right, So

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Speaker 1: they go in, they buy the firearms and really they

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Speaker 1: just give them to the gangs and stuff like that.

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Speaker 1: That's the kind of thing the gun register should stop, right,

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Speaker 1: So isn't there some value in that?

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Speaker 2: I think that there is. And when I said that

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Speaker 2: A campaigned on having a full registration system, I'd also

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Speaker 2: said that it was really important that we continue the

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Speaker 2: registry for pistols, endorsements holders as well for the collectors,

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Speaker 2: and make sure that we get the dealers into a

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Speaker 2: digital system. So at the moment, the dealer's registry has

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Speaker 2: been paper based, and I think the straw buying that

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Speaker 2: we're seeing we need to have that digitalized. What I

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Speaker 2: don't agree with is the full registry of firearms, which

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Speaker 2: is your a category ANDed firearms, because we're hearing from

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Speaker 2: police that half the firearms that are being seized don't

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Speaker 2: even have serial numbers on them anymore. So are we

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Speaker 2: trying to create an ambulance at the bottom of a

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Speaker 2: hill or if we just had a mudslide and actually

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Speaker 2: everything's getting buried. So we need to have a look

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Speaker 2: at what's fertile purpose, but hither I do agree digitalizing

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Speaker 2: the dealer licensing system into a registry will be helpful

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Speaker 2: not only for police, but for community safety as well.

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Speaker 1: Call Nicole, thank you so much, appreciate your time. That's

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Speaker 1: Nicole McKee, Associate Minister for Justice.

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