Thread: "Weapons" in vehicles

Originally Posted by rangieman

It isn`t a problem some people are just a little more precious about the subject, So move on or go belt your head against a brick wall

The late, great, Bill leak put this far better than I can hope to:



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To my mind people didn't sacrifice their lives so some Australian's could be offensive to others...

Originally Posted by incisor

To my mind people didn't sacrifice their lives so some Australian's could be offensive to others...

Actually, Dave, I rather think they did. It's called freedom of speech, and I know the people I'm associated with, and will be celebrating Anzac day with, would all quote Voltaire's dictum of defending the right to say. One cannot give offence, one can only take it. Anything else is missing the point.

I would add, I will be celebrating Anzac day Dawn Service at Hellfire Pass, on the infamous Burma Thai railway with my father in law, one of the last surviving members of that ghastly experience. He has won the AO for his work in reconciliation with the former POWs and their captors, something he has been pursuing tirelessly since he retired. The trip is called the Quiet Lion Tour, in honour of Edward 'Weary' Dunlop. There wasn't a man amongst them, and I met quite a few before they died, who would agree that freedom of speech should somehow be abrogated in favour of some confected sensibility. These are people who LIVED what some folk seem to want to think they know something about. They saw their mates beheaded, but they still believed. Is it too much to ask that we believe as well? There is no more important freedom than freedom of speech. This blog only survives because of it. This NATION only survives if we believe in it.

I've been to Hellfire Pass several times and it's a sobering place.
That doesn't change the fact that if you carry a machete in your vehicle then one day you are likely to be asked to explain it's presence. Nothing silly about that - just fact.
There is not a general legal right to go around armed with a weapon in Australia. Rights about weapons are very restricted. The weapons laws generally say we may not have a weapon unless we qualify for a licence. No licence means the weapon is illegal and we have committed a crime.
We don't have a Bill of Rights so there is nothing to protect the rights we like to think we have. This is not the USA - thank goodness!
Nor is there a right to go around offending people. See S18D of the Racial Discrimination Act.
Some people seem to think they have free speech rights which they actually don't have. We have NEVER had free speech in Australia - never.
Happy to buy you a beer to discuss this any time.

Originally Posted by johntins

Actually, Dave, I rather think they did. It's called freedom of speech, and I know the people I'm associated with, and will be celebrating Anzac day with, would all quote Voltaire's dictum of defending the right to say. One cannot give offence, one can only take it. Anything else is missing the point.

No they did not, insulting someone is not a right it is poor form and yes you can give offence, because if it is taken as offensive, then by law it is, and we do live by the law, right, or am I missing something.

My mother, father and grandfather did not fight for future generations right to be offensive to me, I'm all for freedom of speech, as long as it isn't offensive to anyone.

There is no general right to free speech under Australian law. We do not have free speech. Our rights to speak are reduced by various laws.
Not is there a general right to be armed. Various laws restrict the carrying of weapons to those who have licences for them. It becomes an argument about what is a weapon.
If we want general rights to free speech and to be armed then we have to make laws which allow those rights. But people opposed a Bill of Rights because they wrongly thought they already had those rights. They were wrong. We don't already have those rights, so how could we lose what we don't have?
A Bill of Rights would have increased our rights.
So, is a machete a weapon? Certainly were used as weapons in the past. Remember Braveheart?
Try telling a cop you have a right to carry a weapon under Australian law and see what happens.

The original post queried the 'legalities' of carrying 'stuff' like machetes in vehicles in NSW and the rest of Australia.

Refer to the relevant state legislation. It makes it pretty clear.

It's all online. The relevant act in Victoria is the Control of Weapons Act.

Take the time to read it. It may help dispel some myths.

I haven't read the other states but I suspect they follow a similar path.

And yes the law is an ASS. Mainly because it is drafted by lawyers, enacted by politicians and left to be enforced and followed by the bewildered and confused.