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Armed police officers guard the entrance as family and survivors from the March 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings line up to enter the Christchurch High Court for day two of the sentencing hearing of Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant, in Christchurch, New Zealand, on August 25, 2020
NEW ZEALAND’S government will overhaul the tighter gun laws introduced after a deadly mass shooting by a white supremacist five years ago.
According to the Conservative politician leading the change, the current laws put excessive burdens on gun owners, who feel vilified by law enforcement and the public.
“What’s happened is a massive change with massive penalties and targets on people who didn’t do anything wrong,” Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee, a lobbyist for gun owners before she entered parliament in 2020, told reporters.
Green Party MPs stand alone in Parliament in defending Palestine Action against Labour’s proscription of the group as a terrorist organisation — an outrageous move that the Tories supported and the cowardly Lib Dems abstained on, writes ELLIOT TONG