Police Minister Avoiding Cheap Shots
Western Victoria MP Bev McArthur asked the Minister for Police and Emergency Services in Parliament to provide a cost breakdown for $25 million that was spent on 600 new semiautomatic long-armed rifles for use by the Victoria Police operations response unit.
This is equivalent to approximately $41 000 per firearm.
The most likely candidate for the purchase, the Smith & Wesson Military and Police Sport II, costs as little as $1099 from Cleaver Firearms in Queensland.
Mrs McArthur said, “The numbers simply do not stack up.”
The National Shooting Council wrote to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services on 2 December 2019, asking the minister to clarify what the remainder of the $25 million was spent on.
In the Minister’s response, she informed the National Shooting Council that the remainder of the $25 million was spent on ancillary equipment, including optical sighting systems, tactical lights, slings and carry cases, and the rest on specialist user training, organisation-wide awareness training and firearm part replacements.
Mrs McArthur said “The Labor Government appears always willing to shove innumerable zeros behind any announced government expenditure to further deprive future generations of taxpayers of important infrastructure and government services. However, this particular expenditure cannot go unexplained.”
“Even if you include all the expensive ancillary equipment, it would be difficult to envisage each firearm costing more than $6000, given the $1099 estimated unit cost. Even if we are being generous and say that each heavily equipped rifle costs $10 000, where did the remaining $19 million go? Is the $19 million for training programs? The minister’s explanation was patently absurd,” she concluded.
18 June 2020