Following the Bondi Beach massacre of 15 innocent souls attending a Jewish festival, on 14 December 2025, the Albanese government has thrown a blanket across all firearm holders with strict laws to reduce the number of guns held, and has also placed severe restrictions on the types of firearms that can be purchased moving forward.
A new Gun Reform bill was passed in an emergency sitting, with approval of 96 to 45 votes in the Lower House of Federal Parliament, while a late sitting of the Senate last night saw the new firearms bill passed with a vote of 38 for and 22 against.
Following intense pressure including personal attacks on Prime Minister Albanese by Federal Liberal leader Sussan Ley, politicians were recalled two weeks early to debate Hate Speech and Gun Law legislation drawn up hastily by the Federal Labor government.
It was revealed that the father and son duo allegedly behind the Bondi Beach massacre legally owned six firearms, in the father’s name, while the son was on the intelligence agencies’ watch list.
The gun reform bill includes stricter firearm import controls, and means anyone wanting to own guns will have to undergo more frequent security checks and will be limited to how many firearms they can possess. Recreational users will be limited to four firearms, while commercial users and farmers will be allowed 10.
A gun buyback scheme will be used to capture over the number limit and now restricted firearms previously purchased.
Somewhere along the journey, since a lone demented gunman killed 35 people in the tourist hamlet of Port Arthur in Tasmania and prompted the world’s strictest gun controls by the Howard Liberal government in 1996, ownership of guns has since escalated to an estimated 4.1 million weapons.
Guns have quite simply fallen into the wrong hands.
In addition to the federal government laws being passed, it is also expected that the states will commit to their own changes by March and legislate no later than July 2026.
See the new gun laws already passed in NSW on this link.
