Port Arthur, thirty years on — the one decision Canberra got right

Michael West Media · AAP · Tuesday 28 April 2026

Port Arthur, thirty years on — the one decision Canberra got right

Survivors mark thirty years since Port Arthur, and the gun laws Howard pushed through against his own base remain the rare permanent policy this country managed to hold the line on.

Thirty years on and the gun laws still hold because Howard, for all his sins, did the one thing politicians dread — he made a permanent decision and copped the bullets for it. Every Nationals backbencher who's tried to chip away since has been told to sit down. Port Arthur is the proof that a country can choose not to be America. We just have to keep choosing it.

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