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What’s in the government’s gun reform bill? And why elements are ‘a recipe for disaster’
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What’s in the government’s gun reform bill? And why elements are ‘a recipe for disaster’

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Australians will face more frequent security checks and be forced to surrender firearms above a certain limit under sweeping gun reforms expected to be introduced as parliament returns early to respond to the Bondi terror attack.
The government was forced to split his sweeping omnibus bill – which included gun laws, hate crime and migration changes – and dropped provisions on racial vilification on Saturday after it became clear that neither the Coalition nor the Greens supported the changes.
However, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did win support from the Greens for his gun control measures, which will be introduced in the House of Lords on Tuesday.

Firearms safety campaigner Stephen Bendle is pushing for the bill to pass with bipartisan support, urging the coalition to demonstrate it is “serious” about ensuring “the right people have access to the right firearms.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had to succumb to pressure and split the raft of measures, giving him the chance to push through gun law reforms on Tuesday. Source: MONKEY / Lucas Koch

The government also faces opposition from states, with the Queensland government joining the Northern Territory and Tasmania in rejecting the proposed 50-50 split payment, which will deliver the “largest gun buyback program” since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.

“We are telling jurisdictions to listen to the Australian people, the cry has been loud and constant since the Bondi tragedy,” Bendle, chairman of the Australian Gun Safety Alliance, told reporters on Monday.

“Australians have been rightly proud of our gun laws over the past thirty years, but have unfortunately been completely unaware of the growth in the number of firearms, the types of firearms and the availability of firearms.”

Measures yet to be debated when the bill is introduced include strengthening penalties against people who threaten violence against protected groups, banning hate groups and giving the Home Secretary more powers to revoke or deny visas.

Critics insist that gun owners will lose millions from gun buybacks and voiced concerns that new controls will fail to provide recourse for people who lose their licenses.

What does gun buyback mean for gun owners?

The bill creates the grounds for states and territories to work with the Commonwealth to limit the number of firearms over a two-year buyback period, review licensing requirements and investigate the use of criminal intelligence in the process.
The Nationals have criticized the punishment of “ordinary Australians” for the actions of two men who killed 15 people when they opened fire at a Hanukkah event.

After a national cabinet meeting in December, states agreed to restrictions on firearms. It prompted the NSW government to limit individuals to four firearms, while commercial users and farmers were limited to ten.

Several owners have pointed out that they have firearms with sentimental value – passed down from generation to generation – that should not be considered under the limit.
James Glissan, a former police officer and prosecutor, said the Howard-era gun buyback program, which transferred about 650,000 firearms, took place under “very different economic circumstances.”
“One of the big problems with the buyback scheme is that there is no clear justification for the price of the firearm,” he told SBS News.
Glissan says someone who spent $20,000 on multiple firearms can get $5,000 back.
“Now it doesn’t matter how old those firearms are or what the actual retail value or market value of the firearm is, the owners aren’t necessarily going to get that money back,” he added.

Shooting Industry Foundation Australia (SIFA) estimates that an average claim of $6,000 per firearm would cost the government $12 billion for the scheme.

An image on registered firearms in Australia

According to the Australia Institute, there were approximately 3.2 million registered firearms in Australia in 1996. The 2024 figures are higher than pre-Port Arthur levels. Source: SBS news

The plan targets recently banned high-capacity and rapid-fire weapons. SIFA estimates that 50 percent of gun owners will be affected by the new measures.

Zareh Ghazarian, associate professor of politics and international relations at Monash University, says it is important to “make certain forms of gun ownership more difficult.”
“For many people it may give them peace of mind that certain weapons will not be available to others, but at the same time it raises questions about policing, control and management of public order,” he said.

The legislation will also provide for reinforced guardrails around the importation of firearms.

Concerns about ‘stricter’ firearms controls

There will be an extra layer of security checks under the AusCheck system when approving firearms licenses and assessing current holders.
Glissan expects that “stricter controls focused on small details” will become the biggest problem, with checks increasing from every five to two years.
He said as police search the history of firearm owners, people who had a mental health incident a decade ago but have been a law-abiding citizen since then can now have their licenses revoked, which, once completed, will have no mechanism for review under the new reforms.

“If the commissioner makes the decision to revoke a firearms permit, that’s it. There is no possibility of independent review,” he said.

Glissan warns against leaving discretion over the laws to “top-down pressure” from commissioners, suggesting a return to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal or a similar governing body, which was the practice before the December attack.
“You have this combined problem of how the discretion will work in practice, plus the inability to review the decision by an independent body. And I think that’s a recipe for disaster,” he said.
Where necessary, states and territories will have access to classified intelligence from federal agencies, including ASIO and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

It will also enable AusCheck to facilitate citizenship verification checks in limited circumstances.

Criticism of the government’s approach

The government has been criticized for the lack of public consultation on all aspects of the bill, including the gun reforms, which allowed only 48 hours for feedback.
Glissan says it is “unfortunately very common when we deal with reforms after a tragedy.”

“It’s a very rapid reform with very little public education about what the law was and no real explanation of what the flow-on effects will be once the law is passed,” he said.

A woman with red short hair in a dark blazer

According to the latest Newspoll, One Nation’s popularity has soared since the May 2025 election, from single digits to 22 percent. Source: MONKEY / Darren England

Ghazarian agreed that communicating the decisions and the reasoning behind them is critical.

He pointed to the rise of One Nation, with the right-wing party jumping to 22 percent in the latest Newspoll – ahead of the coalition support of 21 percent – as evidence that voters may be tempted to vote for alternatives.
“I think we are already seeing that some jurisdictions are very skeptical and may not be very supportive of the proposed laws,” he said.
“So if the government wants to achieve an effective political outcome here, it needs to be able to convince these stakeholders that what they are proposing is the right thing to do.”

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