Sam Pang wins Gold Logie + Can guns keep our nurses safe?

**Chris Spyrou** (0:07)
Hey, Chris Spyrou, with you.

**Chris Spyrou** (0:09)
Welcome to The Briefing. The opposition in one state is promising to become the first to roll out a measure aimed at making our hospitals safer, but critics say it could wind up doing the complete opposite.

**Maddy Harradence** (0:20)
A lot of the times you can de-escalate a situation if you have that time and space to sit with someone and understand what their issues are, what are their unmet needs.
What's causing the agitation? Can you call a family member? You need to be able to develop a rapport really quickly. You can't do that if you're understaffed.

**Chris Spyrou** (0:36)
That deep dive into bringing guns into our emergency rooms by way of armed guards is coming up in the second half of this episode. First though, let's get into the headlines with Justine Landis-Henley. It's Monday 17th August.

**Justine Landis-Henley** (0:52)
Good morning, Chris. New South Wales will become the first state to undertake Australia's biggest gun buyback since Port Arthur 30 years ago.
The scheme, first announced by the federal government in the wake of last year's Bondi terror attack, is tipped to pull more than a quarter of a million weapons off the streets, with the state and Commonwealth governments splitting the cost.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:12)
Today, the Commonwealth and New South Wales governments are acting to take guns off our streets.

**Chris Spyrou** (1:18)
As to how it works, well, the New South Wales government has already capped most licence holders at four guns each, ten if you're a primary producer or sporting shooter. From November, though, anything over that can be handed in. Owners get up to $1,000 for certain firearms, and from next year, up to 10 grand for ones of higher value.

**Justine Landis-Henley** (1:38)
But not everyone's sold. Critics say the payout doesn't come close to what the guns are worth, and that it punishes law-abiding owners for the actions of two men.

**SPEAKER_6** (1:48)
Look at the radicals.

**Justine Landis-Henley** (1:49)
Look at the numbers that are on the watchlist.

**SPEAKER_6** (1:52)
This is what we should be going after. Not law-abiding Australians who are trying to go about their business.

**Pauline Hanson** (1:57)
To suggest a gun buyback is going to solve this for us, is going to stop another Bondi, it's absolute bulls***.

**Justine Landis-Henley** (2:06)
Pauline Hanson on Sky There, followed by New South Wales opposition leader Kelly Sloan.

**Chris Spyrou** (2:10)
Nationally, we do know that this was an idea that was floated in the wake of the Bondi Terrorist Event, and there were a bunch of states at the time that came out to say that they were on board and not on board. New South Wales obviously was one of the first and we've seen that now come to fruition. Queensland and the Northern Territory, they're out, they're still out. South Australia and Tasmania have said that they're open to the idea. Western Australia has run its own and wants a national approach and so does the ACT. Victoria initially had said no, but now with their new Premier Ben Carroll, he's leaving the door open, he's messaging over the weekend was that we'll have more to say on this.
Interestingly, Chris Minns knows that this is a scheme that does not have universal support. He was quite firm on that idea over the weekend saying, we're going to fight for this. And we have heard from a bunch of different groups, from the New South Wales Farmers Association, they said they're against it. We've also heard from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, they say they're against it and that a simple work around could be for a gun owner to reach out to a mate to get a gun license and then carry their firearms for him. So they're just pointing out that while in theory it may be a good idea, there are some particulars that have not been thought out. And then of course you have the Pauline Hansen element of it all that they're saying this is unfairly penalizing lawful gun owners.

**Justine Landis-Henley** (3:30)
Yeah, definitely a controversial move politically, probably much more so than a lot of listeners would expect. And one that I think Chris Mintz is willing to take to the next election, so we'll see what happens.

**Chris Spyrou** (3:39)
The federal government has confirmed it's slowing down the processing of new backpacker visas. As a new poll out today suggests, a majority of voters reckon Labour's running migration in an unplanned and unmanaged way.

**SPEAKER_5** (3:51)
The processing of working holiday visas at the moment, they are still being processed, but they are being processed more slowly.

**Justine Landis-Henley** (3:57)
That was Immigration Minister Tony Burke and it's worth noting that these working holiday visas keep a lot of regional Australia running. So slowing them down does sting farms and businesses that rely on that labour. And this is a point that Nationals leader Matt Canavan made over the weekend.