Royal Commission mentions firearms 150 times scapegoating gun owners, forgets Islam: Pauline Hanson

The interim report of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion appears to follow the Labor government’s intention to scapegoat Australian firearm owners for the Bondi massacre.

Senator Hanson has said she’s concerned the Royal Commission was a waste of time and taxpayers’ money if it could not see obvious problems with immigration while recommending further restrictions on lawful firearm owners.

“The report mentions firearms more than 150 times while barely mentioning Islam at all,” she said. “Radical Islam is the elephant in the Royal Commission’s room. The vast majority of terrorism attacks around the world have been committed in the cause of radical Islam and that was certainly the case at Bondi.

“This inquiry is supposed to be about social cohesion, but we have a system which actively works against it by allowing immigration by people who have absolutely no interest in assimilating with a cohesive Australian society. This includes extremist Islamist preachers who have been enabled to radicalise people in Australia such as the Bondi shooters.

“The interim report states agencies have identified no gap in existing legal and regulatory frameworks that impeded their ability to prevent an attack like Bondi. If the system had no gaps – if law enforcement had all the necessary powers – then how did it fail to stop this?

“Until this question is answered, community safety and social cohesion remain at risk from immigration and the focus on firearm restrictions – which was the initial response of Anthony Albanese – remains the political deflection it always was.”

Senator Hanson said farmers, sporting shooters, recreational hunters and other licensed firearm users were among the most highly regulated members of the community and should not be targeted with policies that did nothing to improve public safety.

“Law-abiding firearm owners are not the problem,” she said. “If this process is serious about preventing future attacks it needs to deal with the causes, not just reach for the most politically convenient lever.”