At the Table.
Your Committee’s Engagement Update.

The Executive Committee met the ACT Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services, Dr Marisa Paterson, on Tuesday 25 August 2026. This was our second meeting with the Minister, and it was very positive. Dr Paterson is seeking ongoing engagement with SSAA ACT on the proposed amendments to the ACT Firearms Act — she offered regular meetings with the Executive Committee and welcomed our input on the issues of most interest and concern to our membership.

We took the opportunity to provide the Minister with a full suite of SSAA ACT member briefing papers, setting out our key positions clearly and on the record — the same evidence-based case we have made from the outset. When the Minister sought our view on the recently announced terms and conditions for the NSW Gun Buyback, we told her plainly that, in our assessment, they fell well short of what is required and were completely inadequate.

On the ACT buyback, the Minister confirmed that the Commonwealth and ACT Governments are still working through the terms and conditions, which have not yet been formalised. On the Minister’s own advice:

In short, nothing is locked in. The process is still open, the detail is still being worked through, and SSAA ACT is engaged at every step — which is exactly where your Committee intends to be.

The Minister advised that a third tranche of amendments to the ACT Firearms Act is being developed, dealing with new citizenship and AusCheck suitability-screening requirements for ACT firearms licence holders. We will examine these closely as the detail emerges and keep members informed of anything that affects you.

Since our meeting with the Minister, National Cabinet has met. On Wednesday 26 August it signed the first update to the National Firearms Agreement in nearly a decade — and the outcome matters a great deal for the ACT. The updated Agreement adopts measures aimed at genuine risk, but it does not include numerical caps or any recategorisation of firearm types. Both had been placed on the national table by National Cabinet in December 2025; neither survived into the Agreement.

This goes to the heart of our case. The Government has framed its proposals in terms of national consistency and the National Firearms Agreement — and the updated Agreement now contains neither of the two measures our members are most concerned about. We welcome an evidence-led national outcome, and your Committee is pressing, at every level, for the ACT’s own proposals to be held to the same standard: fair, proportionate and grounded in evidence. (These developments stem from the Royal Commission’s Interim Report, which recommended prioritising the National Firearms Agreement (Rec 13) and the buyback (Rec 14); a fuller account is in our companion member update, Caps and Categories — Off the National Table.)

Your Committee has put SSAA ACT’s case — and the headline issues of licence fees, the buyback and the National Firearms Register — firmly on the public record:

The Committee’s work goes well beyond the Minister’s office. We have engaged with members across the Legislative Assembly on the proposed amendments — including the Chief Minister, Andrew Barr MLA; the Leader of the Opposition, Mark Parton MLA; the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Police Minister, Deborah Morris MLA; and the Independent Member for Kurrajong, Thomas Emerson MLA. We have since written to Members across the Assembly — including other independent members — setting out the concerns that remain outstanding on the proposed reforms and extending an invitation to meet with us to discuss them; and we have renewed our long-standing invitation to the ACT Greens to engage with us.

On licence fees — a continuing concern for many members — Committee members met with Mark Parton MLA and James Milligan MLA, and fees are addressed in our Estimates submission. We also held a joint meeting with the ACT Firearms Registry — the Registrar and Deputy Registrar — together with representatives from other Canberra ranges, and a further meeting is to be scheduled shortly. Across the Assembly, we engage with the Government and the Opposition alike, in the interests of Council, our members, and all ACT and region shooters, dealers and businesses. Our advocacy is also drawing interest beyond the Territory, including national stage — a reflection of the significance these reforms carry across the country.