The opposition has committed to support tougher new gun laws police say will aid them in their fight against organised crime, by giving them heightened powers to search suspects and their properties at any time and without a warrant.
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But the Coalition continued to push the Andrews government on Tuesday to make three changes to its firearms bill, including halving the period of time these search powers could be imposed on a suspect from 10 years to five.
Police Minister Lisa Neville said on Tuesday the Coalition was putting the interests of Melbourne's gangland bosses ahead of ordinary Victorians by delaying the passage of the laws through Parliament.
The men allegedly behind last week's Thornbury guns heist would have been subject to firearms bans under the state government's proposed laws which have been delayed by political wrangling, Ms Neville said.
She called Opposition Leader Matthew Guy a "mobster's mate", referring to Mr Guy's notorious dinner last year with an alleged Melbourne mafia figure.
In the wake of the arrest of six young men over last week's dramatic theft of dozens of handguns, the government stepped up its pressure on the Victorian Coaltion to allow State Parliament to pass tough new gun laws as early as Tuesday.
Six men – all in their teens or early 20s and alleged by police to be members of a "Middle Eastern crime syndicate" – were arrested on Monday and Tuesday over the robbery at Frank O'Reilly's gun shop in Thornbury.
Police feared the 37 stolen guns would be sold on the black market, but now they believe that all the missing firearms have been recovered.
"These are exactly the people that would have had firearms prohibition orders over them," Ms Neville said.
"This is organised crime and organised crime in Victoria is the bikies, other Middle Eastern groups and other persons of interest that are perpetrating serious crimes in our state.
"These people will be able to be regularly searched [under the proposed legislation] without warrants to make sure they don't have guns.
But the Opposition said it only wanted "sensible, reasonable amendments" to the laws and blamed the government's "dithering and delaying" on the delays to getting the legislation through.
"We are looking to move three sensible, reasonable amendments for consideration of the Legislative Council," Opposition police spokesman Ed O'Donohue said.
"If they fail we will support the bill."
Debate on the bill entered its final stages in Parliament's Upper House late on Tuesday, where Corrections Minister Gayle Tierney said Victoria Police had requested the tougher laws after Constable Ben Ashmole was shot in the head in Moonee Ponds in 2015, by two men who had been released from prison just days ago.
Constable Ashmole survived and Ms Tierney said the two shooters, Rodney Phillips and Sam Liszczak, would have been subject to a firearms prohibition notice under the proposed laws.
"At the time of the offence it only covered 12 months and it was a grey area," Ms Tierney said. "That's why Victoria Police came to the government and asked that this be clarified."
The Greens said they would support the bill without amendments, while the Shooters and Fishers Party, which has two upper house MPs who sit on the cross-benches, have said they support the bill with amendments.
