Federal, state and territory governments are ready to move on firearms reform. Photo: ACT Policing.
Anthony Albanese says he’s ready for the fight and will change Australia’s gun ownership laws no matter what the gun lobby says.
The Prime Minister has made gun law reform his number one priority in the wake of the Bondi Beach mass shootings on Sunday (14 December).
He convened the National Cabinet on Monday with that item placed firmly at the top of the agenda.
State and territory leaders have agreed with the Prime Minister that “strong, decisive and focused action was needed on gun law reform as an immediate action” and that includes renegotiating the National Firearms Agreement.
That agreement was first established after the 1996 Port Arthur tragedy, but with gun ownership in Australia once more rapidly on the rise, it needs strengthening.
Police Ministers and Attorneys-General across all jurisdictions are now being commissioned to “develop options” on accelerating work on a number of gun-ownership issues.
These include fast-tracking the National Firearms Register; beefing up the use of criminal intelligence in firearms licensing; limiting the number of firearms to be held by any one individual; limiting open-ended firearms licensing; and making Australian citizenship a condition of holding a firearm licence.
“I am absolutely ready for the fight,” Mr Albanese said on Tuesday morning (16 December).
“These are common sense changes that we discussed yesterday.”
The ACT Government strongly endorses the agreed outcomes of the National Cabinet, with Chief Minister Andrew Barr saying he recognises that urgent action is needed on gun law reform.
“Work already underway in the ACT includes reviewing existing registry systems and processes, exploring technology options and assessing ACT firearms legislation to identify the changes needed to support the new digital registry,” Mr Barr said.
“This will include reforms relating to privately manufactured and 3D-printed firearms, permit-to-acquire arrangements and suitability criteria for firearms licences and other authorisations.
“I have commissioned the Attorney-General and the Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services to progress this important work.”
NSW Premier Chris Minns and West Australian Premier Roger Cook will lead and coordinate the reform work across jurisdictions.
As an immediate priority, the Federal Government will start work on potential further Customs restrictions of firearms and other weapons type importations, including 3D printing, novel technology and firearms equipment that can hold large amounts of ammunition.
Mr Minns said he was prepared to recall the NSW State Parliament if necessary in order to pass urgent gun law changes in his state.
“We need to make sure the firearms legislation in NSW is fit for purpose,” he said.
“That does mean restricting firearms for the general public… not everybody needs these weapons of mass destruction.
“You don’t need them on NSW streets. So we’ll be looking at change.”
The National Firearms Register is currently not scheduled for implementation until 2028, but work will now be brought forward to get all state and territory registers (some of which are still paper-based) coordinated across jurisdictions.
Speaking on ABC radio, Australian Federal Police Association president Alex Caruana said delays in getting the national register in operation have been two-fold.
“There is a little bit of ego and a little bit of ‘my state is better’ and ‘my car is faster’ and ‘we don’t want another system’ from the states,” he said.
“The other point is that the [Federal] Attorney-General at the time [the process for an NFR was started in 2024] … needed to come out deliberately and more firmly to say to the states ‘I’m not asking you to do this, I’m telling you to do this and I don’t care whose car is faster… which system works better… this is the system that everybody is going to have’.”
Federal Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is not yet fully embracing the need for further gun reform, insisting the priority should be adopting all the recommendations of Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal’s report.
“We will examine in a sensible, proportionate way what has come out of the National Cabinet and it’s an agreement to have a plan to look at certain things, but it’s not going to take the action we need on the issue we need, which is combating antisemitism,” Ms Ley said.
“The work has been done by Jillian, and it needs to be implemented. And it’s across government and society. And where is it? That’s the question for the Prime Minister today.”
Greens leader Larissa Waters welcomed the National Cabinet’s indication to move on gun laws and said her party would work with federal, state and territory parliaments to pass legislation to tighten gun ownership.
“This moment is beyond politics,” Senator Waters said.
“This is not America and we must work both to eradicate antisemitism and racism and to reduce unnecessary guns in our community”
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
