The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has praised John Howard’s “courage and determination” to legislate gun control in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre and says a national firearms register would be the “next step” for the reforms that began in 1996.
Albanese will make the remarks at the National Museum on Thursday at a ceremony with Howard and Walter Mikac, who lost his wife and two daughters at Port Arthur. The ceremony will mark correspondence between Mikac and Howard entering the museum’s collection.
Albanese describes Mikac’s first letter “in ordinary blue Biro, on foolscap paper” – dated 7 May 1996, nine days after the massacre – as “one of the most extraordinary things I have ever read”.
“The opening sentence alone stands as a monument to the grace and bravery of a truly great Australian,” Albanese says in an advance copy of the speech.
“And I quote: ‘Dear Mr Howard, as the person who lost his wife and two beautiful daughters at Port Arthur, I am writing to you to give you the strength to ensure no person in Australia ever has to suffer such a loss.’
“Imagine writing that, a bare nine days after losing the three people you loved most in the world to an act of unspeakable and unimaginable violence.
“Having to grieve, alongside so many others, in the unrelenting glare of the national spotlight … [and] somehow finding the strength to think of others, to think of the future, to try and make sure no one would ever suffer as you and your loved ones had.”
Albanese says it was to Howard’s “enduring and eternal credit” that he had legislated strong gun reforms, also praising the bipartisan support from then Labor leader Kim Beazley and Coalition partner Tim Fischer.
“Together they answered Walter’s call: ‘Be strong and act now’,” Albanese says.
“They responded to the deep passion and principled advocacy so many of you in this room gave to the cause of reform … Reforms that have seen the death rate from firearms halve since 1996.”
Albanese says honouring that moment in history is also “a reminder that our work goes on”, citing progress towards a national firearms register.
In December the fatal shooting of two Queensland police officers and a neighbour in Wieambilla renewed calls for a national firearm register more than three decades after it was first proposed.
A national register would allow officers in any location in Australia to access the same information in real time, thereby determining if a person holds an interstate gun licence. It would help track guns and gun owners across the country.
In April police ministers agreed to launch public consultation for the register before a decision by national cabinet in mid-2023. On 9 June police ministers met again in Brisbane, agreeing unanimously on options to be put to national cabinet.
Mikac said after the deaths of his wife and daughters he felt “powerless and in deep grief” but he was compelled to take action.
“Writing to prime minister John Howard was the logical choice. If our gun safety was going to change it had to come from the top.
“These letters demonstrate the power of what one positive decision in a time of trauma and senselessness can achieve.”
In 1997 Mikac and a group of volunteers established the Alannah & Madeline Foundation in honour of his young daughters.
Howard, the inaugural patron of the foundation, said: “Walter Mikac honoured the memory of his beloved wife and two little daughters, so tragically taken from him, by finding the courage to rebuild his life without them.”
