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Parliament has approved a motion for a House of Assembly committee to be formed to investigate the need for gun regulatory reform in Tasmania. The committee will consist of four members: Mark Shelton, who will serve as chairman, Shane Broad, who will serve as deputy chairman, Adam Brooks, and a member of the Greens. It will replace a Legislative Council committee which was due to examine the Liberals’ pre-election policy on gun reforms but disbanded when the government reconsidered its position. Dr Broad attempted to move a motion on behalf of Labor to include Legislative Council members on the committee so political parties numbers could not sway subsequent recommendations but this was quashed by the government. The government did, however, agree to opening up membership to the proposed new Tasmanian Firearms Owners Council to people who did not own guns and broaden the inquiry’s terms of reference so it did not focus on government policy. Dr Broad said there was a need to have broad-based consultative group with anti-gun group representative if any legislative reforms were to win community support. Greens justice spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff said the inquiry should be not bound to the Liberal Party’s pre-election policy commitments. “In no way should an inquiry be predicated on an investigation of the policy commitment because they do, some of them, breach the National Firearms Agreement,” she said. Police Minister Michael Ferguson said the committee would be consider an act which was 22 years old. “It has served Tasmania extremely well but it does suffer from some issues in places where it’s difficult for legitimate firearms users to practically be able to use firearms as tools of their trade,” he said. “I want the inquiry to be able to look at various policy options.” The government also agreed to remove ownership and use of sound suppressors from the committee’s terms of reference. The committee will need to provide a report to Parliament by March 14.

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