$30m still left in gun buyback scheme
The Sunday Telegraph
New South Wales
5 December 1999
[Edited]
MORE than $30 million remains unspent from the guns buyback, despite the scheme finishing more than two years ago.
No guns have been handed in since October 1997, yet the Federal Government is still deciding what to do with the leftover cash.
The Government raised $490 million through a one-off rise in the Medicare levy, similar to the Timor tax. The buyback cost almost $459 million, including compensation to dealers and firearms owners and administration payments to the States.
It was introduced to rid Australia of semi-automatic weapons following the Port Arthur massacre, where gunman Martin Bryant executed 35 people in April 1996.
More than 643,000 guns were handed in. A spokesman for Justice Minister Amanda Vanstone said some of the remaining money still had to be paid out to a handful of dealers and gun owners on Norfolk Island.
"Until those claims are finalised, there can't be any decision on what will happen," he said.
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