NSW Premier Chris Minns is recalling parliament on MOnday and Tuesday next week to ram into place new WA-style gun laws in the wake of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack.
He has not yet revealed the laws but said they would have clauses “to cap the number of firearms [a person can own], to reclassify straight pull-up and pump-action shotguns, to look at reducing magazine capacity for shotguns, prohibiting belt-fed magazines in those shotguns and crucially, removing NCAT as an appeal mechanism once a designation has been made about withdrawing a licence.”
Minns also said he believed a limit of five guns was too many.
He has enlisted WA Premier Roger Cook to help concoct the laws, which in WA contain numerous anti-democratic Henry VIII clauses and have been roundly condemned by legal experts, shooting organisations and civil libertarians.
Minns wants to act quickly to enforce the laws while emotions are still high following the terror attack, but sources indicate he may be facing growing resistance to what is being increasingly seen as a diversionary tactic to deflect attention away from the real issues behind the attack.
Minns and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese both launched a platform of tightening gun laws on the day of the terror attack, but their moves have been seen elsewhere as a diversion from failures of leadership, Labor’s lack of action against extremism and racism, and failures of security and policing in allowing one of the terrorists to own firearms.
It was revealed that Australian security services knew both terrorists had attended military-style training overseas only weeks before their attack, yet no action was taken to remove firearms, let alone undertake actions which may have stopped them.
In addition to firearms, the terrorists had explosives with them at Bondi Beach, so were likely to have taken lives even without firearms.
If Minns is able to recall parliament next week, he may be in a position to table new gun laws and push them through both houses, having them ready to enact early in 2026.
He will have the support of the Greens, which he will need, and there is a risk the Greens could use their balance to power to push for tougher laws matching their policy agenda, including a limit of three firearms per person, severe restrictions on centrefire rifles and the outlawing of recreational hunting.
However, the changes will sail through if the Coalition provides bipartisan support for law changes.
Sources within the shooting lobby say that since John Howard yesterday labelled the push for gun-law changes as a “distraction”, Coalition MPs may be feeling less pressure to put their weight behind Minns’ push.
If the Coalition does want to pull back from any potential knee-jerk reaction after the Bondi attack, Minns may fail to recall parliament.
Shooters are being told to urgently contact their local MPs — regardless of which party it may be — and urge them not to support rushed legislation of any kind, and to wait until level heads are able to consider evidence-based solutions to real problems.
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