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Tasmanian farmers’ livelihoods will remain under “extreme pressure” while they are unable to more freely carry firearms around their properties, the state’s peak farming body says. Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association president Wayne Johnston is also a member of the state parliament’s Firearms Consultative Committee, which he said had negotiated with the Liberals to determine the proposed changes to the state’s gun laws. RELATED: The planned reforms came to light just a day before the March 3 state election, provoking a fierce backlash from sections of the community, including survivors of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. Among the Liberals’ proposed changes are a doubling of the length of gun licences to 10 years, and permitting farmers to carry pump-action shotguns and semi-automatic rifles unlocked in their vehicles. On Sunday, Police Minister Michael Ferguson announced the government would support the proposal for an upper house inquiry into gun laws. Mr Johnston said the proliferation of fallow deer in Tasmania, as well as increasing populations of wallabies and possums, was making it exceedingly difficult for farmers to go about their day-to-day business. “We are getting extreme pressure on our pastures and our livelihood just through population increase,” he said. Mr Johnston said if the new laws were enacted, they would not allow for farmers to carry firearms in their cars whenever they liked. “So if I’m shooting at my farm here and I’ve got farms that are across public roads, and I stop and get out to close the gate, [this would] allow me then to not lock it away [and] pull it all apart – it allows me to cross the road,” he said. Meanwhile, Civil Liberties Australia Tasmania spokesman Rajan Venkataraman said the organisation he represented did not have “a blanket position” on the gun law issue in Tasmania. “We certainly do think that sensible gun laws have proven themselves very successful in Australia … over the last 20-plus years,” he said.

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