Bondi terror attack spurs Australia’s biggest gun buyback scheme since Port Arthur massacre
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the scheme this morning, saying it is expected to lead to the seizure and destruction of hundreds of thousands of “surplus, newly banned and illegal” firearms.
“The terrible events at Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets,” he said.
Anthony Albanese has announced the largest gun buyback scheme in almost 30 years. (Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images)
“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 at Bonnyrigg.
“There’s no reason why someone in that situation needed that many guns.
“There are now more than 4 million firearms in Australia – more than at the time of the Port Arthur massacre nearly 30 years ago.”
The cost of the buyback will be evenly split between the federal and state governments.
As in 1996, states will be responsible for collecting the guns, while the Australian Federal Police will be tasked with destroying them.
The guns used to carry out Sunday’s terror attack were legally owned by shooter Sajid Akram. (Nine)
The buyback will help enforce the changes to firearm control laws agreed to by national cabinet earlier this week, which will include limiting the number of weapons one person can own, bringing forward the National Firearms Register, and restricting gun licences to Australian citizens.
That overhaul comes after one of the shooters, 50-year-old Sajid Akram, legally owned six long-arm firearms, some of which were used to carry out Sunday’s massacre.
He was granted a gun licence in 2023, despite his son having been investigated – and cleared – by ASIO over potential extremist links years earlier.
Any changes to federal laws are unlikely to face any trouble getting through parliament, with Labor holding a comfortable majority in the lower house and needing only the support of the Greens to get the assent of the Senate.
Fourteen of the 15 victims of the Bondi attack (clockwise from top left): Rabbi Eli Schlanger, Dan Elkayam, Matilda, Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, Boris and Sofia Gurman, Edith Brutman, Adam Smyth, Boris Tetleroyd, Marika Pogany, Peter Meagher, Alex Kleytman, Tibor Weitzen, Reuven Morrison. (Supplied)
Senior Coalition figures, though, have signalled their opposition to changes to gun laws, with Nationals leader David Littleproud labelling them a “cheap political smokescreen”.
However, Albanese said Australians understood the need for gun controls to be modernised.
“In 1996, the then-Howard government did the right thing: intervened to have a scheme which Australians have been rightly proud of,” he said.
“We need to go further… if a bloke in Bonnyrigg needs six high-powered rifles and is able to get them under existing licensing schemes, then there’s something wrong.
“I think Australians can see that.”
