Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced that Australia will launch a national gun buyback scheme.
This comes as the country continues to come to terms with the deadly attack on a Jewish holiday event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that left 15 people dead.
Albanese called the plan the country’s biggest gun buyback since 1996 – the year of Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in modern history, the Port Arthur massacre in the island state of Tasmania – and said that authorities will purchase surplus, newly-banned and illegal firearms.
Albanese told a news conference today, “Right now, there are more guns in Australia than there were during Port Arthur. We can’t allow that to continue,” adding that there are currently more than four million firearms in the country.
“Non-citizens have no need to own a gun. And someone in suburban Sydney has no need to own six … The terrible events of Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets.”
Anthony Albanese
Albanese added that authorities in Australia’s states and territories will be tasked with collecting the weapons and processing payments for surrendered firearms under the scheme.
Federal police will then be responsible for destroying them. “We expect hundreds of thousands of firearms will be collected and destroyed through this scheme,” Albanese added.
Aided by some of the toughest gun restrictions globally, Australia has one of the lowest gun homicide rates in the world. Restrictions were tightened after a lone gunman, armed with semiautomatic weapons, killed 35 people at the Port Arthur tourist site almost 30 years ago.
The massacre shocked the country, with authorities soon after launching a major gun amnesty and buyback scheme that removed more than 650,000 newly-prohibited firearms from circulation.
Sunday’s shooting in Sydney’s Bondi Beach area – in which two attackers, named as father and son Sajid Akram and Naveed Akram, went on a shooting spree and killed 15 people – has had a similarly jolting impact on Australian society as the Port Arthur massacre and prompted self-reflection.
Albanese said that 50-year-old Sajid – who was shot dead at the scene – and 24-year-old Naveed – who was charged with “terrorism” and murder offences after he awoke from a coma on Tuesday – were inspired by “Islamic State ideology.”
On Thursday, Albanese announced tougher hate speech laws as he acknowledged the country had experienced a rising tide of anti-Jewish hate since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, and Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Albanese said that rising anti-Semitism in Australia “culminated on Sunday in one of the worst acts of mass murder that this country has ever seen.”
“It was an attack on our Jewish community – but it was also an attack on the Australian way of life. Australians are shocked and angry. I am angry. It is clear we need to do more to combat this evil scourge, much more.”
Anthony Albanese
Earlier on Friday, hundreds of people plunged into the ocean off Bondi Beach in another gesture to honour the dead.
Australia To Hold National Day Of Reflection
Moreover, the Prime Minister also announced that Australia will hold a national day of reflection this Sunday – one week after the mass shooting.
Albanese urged Australians to light candles at 6:47pm (07:47 GMT) on Sunday, December 21 – “exactly one week since the attack unfolded.”
He told reporters that it is a moment to pause, reflect, and affirm that hatred and violence will “never define who we are as Australians.”
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