Bondi victim saluted as brother lashes gun laws critics
Alex Mitchell |
A former police officer, beloved rugby clubman and devoted husband gunned down in the Bondi massacre has been farewelled.
Peter “Marzo” Meagher, who died aged 61, was working as a freelance photographer covering the Chanukah by the Sea event on December 14 when he was shot at the ill-fated community gathering.
Hundreds of mourners including senior political figures packed Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral on Wednesday for his funeral, where family and friends remembered the many facets of his life.
In a powerful eulogy, brother David Meagher took aim at critics of gun reform in the wake of the terrorist attack and called for even tighter restrictions.
NSW parliament passed a tranche of new gun laws in December, among them a cap that means an individual can have no more than four firearms.
Naveed Akram and father Sajid Akram had six guns between them when they killed 15 people in the terrorist attack.
“What can you do with six guns that you can’t do with four?” Mr Meagher asked.
“Gun reform alone will not solve hatred or extremism, but an anti-Semite without a gun is just a hate-filled person. An anti-Semite with a gun is a killer.”
Mr Meagher also questioned why some – including former prime minister John Howard and former treasurer Josh Frydenberg – have dismissed suggestions of a gun problem and said Australia was only battling an anti-Semitism scourge.
“Why can’t it be two things at once?” he said.
“Just as we must ask why the killers did what they did, surely, we must also ask how they were able to.”
A large political contingent of attendees included Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and NSW Premier Chris Minns amid a concerted campaign pushing for a Commonwealth royal commission.
The cathedral was packed with police, as former comrades remembered Mr Meagher’s 35 years in the force where he rose to the rank of detective sergeant.
He received three Commissioner’s Commendations including for his work investigating the 2014 Lindt Cafe siege.
“Peter always put up his hand for work, never played scared. He was never afraid to step in and arrest a criminal,” former NSW Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald said.
Officers formed a police guard to farewell Mr Meagher at the end of the funeral.
He was also remembered as a legendary figure with decades of service to the Randwick Rugby Club, where he was a player, long-time referee and team manager.
Former Wallaby Morgan Turinui apologised to Mr Meagher’s family the club had not made him a life member before his death.
“Our only defence is we assumed we had many more years of Marzo’s quiet but inexhaustible energy,” he said.
“The most generous man I’ve even known still had more to give.”
Many players and other Randwick club figures were also in attendance.
Accused mass killer Akram, 24, faces 59 charges over the shootings including 15 counts of murder.
He was shot by police at the scene and spent days in a coma before being charged and later transferred to Goulburn supermax prison on Monday.
His 50-year-old father was shot dead by police.
AAP
