Yes Stuart, we are aware of the more relaxed attitude to firearms in New Zealand. It seems to approach the attitude that prevailed in Australia around 50 years ago , when the population of Australia was around the 9 million mark.
The population of New Zealand today is somewhere around 4 million people, which is a little less than the population of the city of Sydney; the population of Australia today is around 21 million people. Additionally, there is considerable difference in the way in which the administration of New Zealand is structured, as compared with the structure of the Australian administration.
The demographic has different characteristics, and the history of settlement, which is linked to the history of firearms ownership, is also different.
There are a number of reasons why New Zealand is able to enjoy a less restrictive firearms regime.
However, possibly the most important reason is that because New Zealand was not subjected to the same explosive population mix, combined with greater population density, that Australia has experienced, there has not been the pressure from the wider community for arms control that has occurred in Australia. This has allowed the interested parties in New Zealand a period of grace, if you will, and realising that it would not be long before they also faced restrictions , political action was implemented early. The Australian experience showed quite clearly what was ahead if action was not taken.
Your recommendations to Gavin are completely correct. The whole issue of ownership of any type of arms is now a political matter, and the only way it can be addressed is by political means.
Legislation of any type normally reflects the wishes of the wider community, so if anti-weapons legislation is introduced, it is because the wider community sees this as desirable. As well as demonstrating political positives to politicians for not passing restrictive legislation, it is probably advisable to maintain a consistent public relations program to attempt to induce a better understanding of weaponry and those who use and collect it, amongst the general public.
Gavin, in our earlier exchange we were not discussing state structures, but Commonwealth structures:- uniform legislation across states dictates that such legislation must be Commonwealth legislation.
Each state, and the Commonwealth, has the right and the obligation to affix titles to the departments for which its individual ministers are responsible.
There is no obligation to maintain any sort of uniformity in the way in which each administration affixes such titles.
At a state level some states do have a Department of Justice, however, the Commonwealth of Australia does not have a Department of Justice, it has an Attorney-General's Department, which is responsible for justice.
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