AUSTRALIAN authorities driven by a wave of anti gun feeling after the Port Arthur massacre yesterday struck a historic national pact for tough new gun laws.
After previous failures, Canbe and the state governments overcame territorial differ and agreed on national gun controls.
"The agreement includes a ban on automatic and semi automatic rifles and [pump action] shotguns and a national approach to registration and licensing," the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, said after a meeting with state police ministers, some of whom had opposed such strong measures.
"I'm very happy to announce that the Commonwealth and the states and territories have agreed on a uniform and much tougher approach to gun laws which will in our view make Australia a much safer place in which to live," he said.
"It is a historic moment in a long debate for a nation which is still coming to terms with the tragic circumstances which took place in Tasmania at Port Arthur only a short while ago.
Ahead of the meeting, opinion polls showed overwhelming support 90 per cent among Australians for tougher national gun laws in the wake of the massacre.
The crackdown will cover importation, ownership, sale, resale, possession, manufacture and use of such weapons.
Mr Howard ordered the summit after 35 people were fatally wounded on April 28th at the tourist site of Port Arthur in Tasmania.
A gunman armed with self loading rifles shot 32 of the victims and the charred bodies of three more were found in the burned out ruins of a nearby cottage. It was Australia's worse massacre by a single gunman.
Mr Howard, whose national government has no legal control over gun laws, wanted total state bans on all automatic and semiautomatic firearms, a national gun register and tighter controls on who could own a gun.
Instead, low powered semiautomatic rifles will be allowed in rural areas if farmers can prove to police they must have them to control vermin.
The ban on pump action shotguns is more than Mr Howard had demanded.
The state add territory governments will buy back the outlawed weapons and the federal government has said it might help pay for the compensation, expected to $100 million (£50.7 million).
Pro gun groups have criticised the Howard plan and have threatened to campaign against politicians supporting the reforms.
Automatic weapons have been banned in Australia for years. Tasmania and Queensland alone had allowed semi automatics, but Tasmania tightened its own laws on Tuesday.
Penalties are likely to be left to each state to implement. In New South Wales, the maximum penalty of a breach on self loading rifles is a 10 year jail sentence.
PA adds In Britain, ministers were yesterday told by MPs to "stop dithering" over tighter gun controls as Australia announced the ban on semi automatic weapons.
Senior Tory and Labour backbenchers expressed outrage that a full eight weeks after the slaughter of children and their teacher in Dunblane, Scotland, the official inquiry into firearms law was still not fully under way.
Semi automatic weapons were outlawed in Britain in 1988 following the Hungerford massacre, and ministers insist they will not respond to pressure for a handgun ban by a "knee jerk reaction" in the wake of Dunblane.
The government set up an inquiry under Lord Cullen designed to take a balanced look at firearms law. But patience among MPs is showing signs of wearing thin.
A former Home Office minister, Mr David Mellor, said there was now an overwhelming case for banning handguns above .22 calibre.
"There comes a time when people have to stop talking about knee jerk reaction it is obvious that the Australians don't think it is a knee jerk reaction to act so quickly," be said.
"My worry is that by the time Lord Cullen has brooded over these matters and made his report it will be the autumn and it is difficult to envisage legislation being in place before next year at the earliest."