The federal government will launch a new gun buyback scheme in response to the Bondi beach terror attack in what Anthony Albanese says will be the biggest collection of weapons since the Port Arthur massacre nearly three decades ago.
It comes as New South Wales announced a suite of gun control measures including capping the number of firearms most recreational shooters can hold at four.
Costs for the buyback, which is expected to see hundreds of thousands of weapons destroyed, will be split between the federal government and the states, the prime minister said on Friday.
States and territories will collect weapons being surrendered, while the Australian federal police will oversee their destruction.
Announcing Sunday as a national day of reflection for the 15 victims of the Bondi attack, Albanese confirmed information from the Office of National Intelligence that showed the shooters had used a regular online video game feed from terror group Islamic State.
Sign up: AU Breaking News email
Albanese faced questions over whether intelligence failures had contributed to the killings. He said there was no information to suggest sharing of data could have prevented the carnage.
The buyback comes as state governments prepare to tighten gun laws through national cabinet, expected to see gun licences issued only to Australian citizens as well as better background checks, limits on the timeframe licenses can be issued for and limits on the number of weapons individuals can own.
A long-awaited national firearms register – first recommended after the Port Arthur massacre – is being accelerated but will not be ready until 2027 at the earliest.
“We know that one of these terrorists held a firearm licence and had six guns in spite of living in the middle of Sydney’s suburbs. There’s no reason why someone in that situation needed that many guns,” Albanese said.
There are more than 4m legally owned guns in Australia, an increase of more than 25% since landmark law reforms were introduced by the Howard government after 35 people were killed in the Tasmanian tourist town of Port Arthur in 1996.
The subsequent buyback and amnesty saw about 650,000 weapons destroyed.
The new buyback will allow gun owners whose collections exceed new laws to surrender them, and could include voluntary surrendering.
The prime minister called for bipartisanship on the issue of gun law reform, even as members of the Coalition, minor parties including One Nation and Labor backbencher and Olympic shooter Dan Repacholi said changes were not necessary.
Albanese praised Repacholi’s record as the member for Hunter but warned tougher rules were overdue, including to protect safety in suburbs of Australia’s biggest cities.
“If a bloke in Bonnyrigg needs six high-powered rifles and is able to get them under existing licensing scheme, then there’s something wrong,’ he said.
In a lengthy post on social media on Friday, Repacholi said new rules must not target responsible, law-abiding firearms owners.
“From what we are learning, the focus should be on information sharing, risk identification and enforcement of existing powers, not on arbitrary limits that penalise people who have done nothing wrong,” he wrote.
“NSW police already have significant powers to suspend or cancel licences where someone is not fit and proper.”
Gun control
The New South Wales government will cap the number of firearms for most licensed owners to four, and place new limits on weapon types and magazine sizes, under proposed changes announced on Friday.
The reforms, to be debated in state parliament next week, will also remove an appeal mechanism that allows gun owners to challenge a decision by police to suspend or revoke their licence.
Under the proposal, most recreational shooters will be limited to a maximum of four firearms, with exemptions for primary producers and sports shooters, who may hold up to 10.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, will also pursue a complete ban on firearms that use belt-fed magazines, and reclassify straight-pull, pump-action and button/lever release firearms – designed to allow fast shooting – to a more restrictive licence category.
The state government has described the proposed changes as a way to “close the gaps” in gun laws, which will accompany a buyback scheme.
“There is a very different world between where we are today and where we were before Sunday,” Minns said on Friday.
“We have to change. We all have to change. What we had done is not working.”
Several licence-holders in NSW have almost 300 individual weapons linked to their licence, with six of the top 10 gun owners in the state living in suburban Sydney.
Minns and his Western Australian counterpart, Roger Cook, are leading reform proposals for national cabinet, but the Coalition has accused the government of using guns laws to distract from Labor’s record on addressing antisemitism since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attacks in Israel.
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, told Sydney radio 2GB on Friday the Coalition would offer a sensible and proportionate examination of any proposals on guns, but she called for the focus to remain on antisemitism.
“It is … disingenuous and not right to deflect the conversation to that because what we have to deal with here is a rising tide of festering antisemitism,” she said.
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and the Shooters Union have all flagged strong opposition to tightening of gun laws.
Shooters Union Australia president Graham Park said the buyback was a bad idea, and the focus should be on illegal weapons.
“Anthony Albanese realises that the majority of Australians have figured out his diversion from his own inactivity and allowing the events of Bondi to happen,” he said.
“It’s a pure political stunt that he’s willing to spend $1b or something. It shows desperation, as his Labor colleague, Chris Minns, was facing a revolt from his own members.”
