The Albanese government says it will establish a National Gun Buyback Scheme to remove “surplus, newly banned and illegal” firearms from the community, describing it as the largest buyback since the post–Port Arthur reforms in 1996.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, “The deadly terrorist attack at Bondi Beach is a national tragedy which can never be allowed to happen again.”
“This national buyback scheme will help get guns off our streets, and help keep all Australians safe.”
The announcement comes less than a week after the Bondi Beach mass shooting during a Hanukkah gathering, which killed 15 people and injured dozens. Authorities have described the violence as a targeted antisemitic attack, with investigators saying early evidence indicates the gunmen were inspired by Islamic State ideology.
The government’s press release argues the Bondi attack exposed gaps in the current system after it emerged that one of the alleged attackers held a firearms licence and kept six guns in a suburban home. Prime Minister Albanese stressed the buyback was intended to “help get guns off our streets” and prevent a repeat of Sunday’s tragedy.
Under the proposal, the Commonwealth would fund the scheme with states and territories on a 50:50 basis, with legislation to be introduced to support Commonwealth funding. States and territories would handle the collection, processing and payments for surrendered firearms, while the Australian Federal Police would oversee the destruction of the weapons.
The buyback is designed to sit alongside a broader package of national reforms now being developed through the National Cabinet, after leaders agreed this week to pursue a tougher, more consistent approach to firearms regulation across jurisdictions.
Options commissioned for police ministers and attorneys-general include capping the number of firearms per person, limiting open-ended licences and the types of guns that can be legally owned (including some modifications), making Australian citizenship a condition of a firearms licence, expanding the use of criminal intelligence in licencing decisions, and accelerating work on the National Firearms Register.
In the press release, the government proposed that states and territories agree to “ambitious” new reforms by March 2026, with legislation in place by 1 July 2026, arguing that inconsistent rules leave Australia vulnerable because “gun laws are only as strong as the weakest state”.
The move reaches back to the model adopted after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, when the National Firearms Agreement introduced nationwide standards and a major buyback that removed hundreds of thousands of firearms from circulation. Supporters of further reform point to data showing Australia now has more than 4 million civilian firearms, higher than estimates in 1996, even after decades of strict controls.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the government needed to address both the “motivation and the method” of terrorist violence, while Albanese framed the buyback as a practical step to reduce access to weapons as Australia confronts the aftermath of one of its deadliest terror incidents in decades.
“We have to address the motivation and the method of these crimes. No one can justify why this household had so many firearms.”
The government has also pointed to existing measures aimed at reducing unregistered weapons, including the Permanent National Firearms Amnesty, which has allowed people to surrender unregistered or unwanted firearms without penalty since 2021. Some states have run their own buybacks in recent years, including Western Australia’s program, which the WA government says resulted in nearly 52,000 guns surrendered.
Not everyone agrees that buybacks and tighter regulation should be the centrepiece of the response. In previous debates about firearms policy, shooting groups have argued that rising gun numbers must be understood alongside population growth and declining firearm deaths, while researchers and advocates counter that higher concentrations of guns — including in metropolitan areas — increase risk.
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