Parliament has passed some of the most significant changes to Australia’s guns laws since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.
Spurred by last month’s Bondi beach terror attack, the new laws will toughen background checks and fund a national gun buy-back scheme.
Here’s everything you need to know.
How are Australia’s gun laws changing?
Split off from Labor’s omnibus bill on hate speech and vilification, the new guns laws establish a national buy-back, coordinated by the federal government and to be run in cooperation with the states.
Tighter rules will stop the importation of a range of firearms, as well as limiting importation of belt-fed ammunition, magazines of more than 30 rounds, silencers and speed loaders. Open-ended import permits will be abolished.
Background checks for gun owners will become more rigorous and more frequent, with better information sharing between governments and security agencies.
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It will be an offence to use a carriage service to access material on the manufacture or modification of guns and accessories, as well as other explosives or lethal devices.
The bill allows for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) to provide intelligence for background checks, run by AusCheck. An individual’s citizenship status will also be confirmed.
Further changes at the state and territory level have been agreed by national cabinet.
How many guns are there in Australia today?
As of December, there were more than 4.1m registered firearms in Australia, more than at any time since Port Arthur in 1996, in which 35 people were killed.
At least 2,000 new guns are lawfully bought every week.
With more than 1.15m firearms, NSW has the most guns of any jurisdiction, ahead of Queensland (1.14m) and Victoria (974,000).
About 930,000 people have a firearms licence in Australia, including 260,000 in NSW, 243,000 in Victoria and 231,000 in Queensland. The ACT has the fewest guns and the fewest licences of any jurisdiction.
Under separate changes, state laws will be updated to limit firearms owners to four guns for recreational use and 10 guns for commercial and farming use. The federal government wants the states to commit to their own changes by March and legislate by July.
Who supports the gun reform?
Labor passed the changes through parliament with the support of the Greens.
The Coalition opposed the reforms, driven in part by opposition from the Nationals, whose leader, David Littleproud, called the bill “a cheap political diversion”. Coalition MPs had warned sporting shooters, farmers and pest controllers were being punished for the acts of the alleged Bondi terrorists. Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party, including Nationals defector Barnaby Joyce, opposed the changes.
The country’s gun lobby has opposed the plan, describing it as “the fight of our lives.”
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, used question time on Tuesday to criticise Liberal and Nationals MPs, insisting measures including background checks and a ban on non-citizens owning guns would have prevented the Bondi shooting.
Gun control advocates had urged MPs to support the plan. Safety advocate Stephen Bendle said the bill was essential to ensuring “the right people having access to the right firearms”.
Independent MP Helen Haines said the bill did not blame responsible gun owners for the deaths at Bondi. “Law-abiding gun owners were as horrified by those events as anyone else – and they can be part of the solution,” she said.
What about the states?
Arrangements for the buy-back scheme have become messy.
Queensland is expected to oppose the national buy-back, in contrast to the Howard government’s moves in 1996, which had national support. Along with an amnesty, it saw about 650,000 firearms destroyed.
A Queensland government spokesperson said the government was “calmly and methodically” working through the complex issues to ensure the right response.
Other Liberal-led jurisdictions including the Northern Territory and Tasmania have expressed reservations, including insisting the 50:50 split on costs is unfair to the states.
The federal government is yet to determine how much the buy-back will cost, but most of the cost is expected next financial year.
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.
