Australia to start gun buyback programme after Bondi Beach terror attack

By Swati Pandey

 

Australia will start a gun buyback programme to take surplus, newly-banned and illegal firearms off the street, following the terror attack in Bondi Beach which left 15 people dead.

 

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday announced the government will introduce legislation to help fund the buyback. 

 

“We expect hundreds of thousands of firearms will be collected and destroyed,” he said at a press conference in Canberra, adding that states and territories will collect and process the weapons, while the Australian Federal Police will be responsible for destroying them, under the proposal. 

 

It will be the biggest such programme since the gun buyback held in the wake of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, Albanese said. The Federal Government will share costs equally with Australian states and territories.

 

A father-son duo targeted a Jewish gathering at a Hanukkah celebration in Bondi on Sunday, shooting into the crowd, in what authorities have described as an Islamic State-inspired attack on the Jewish community. The father died in the shootout, while the son, identified as 24-year-old Naveed Akram, has been charged with 59 offenses including murder and terrorism.

 

Albanese is shouldering intense pressure over his handling of a tide of antisemitism over the past two years by pursuing a post-attack agenda of gun control and tougher action on anti-Jewish hate.

 

National Cabinet earlier in the week agreed to work toward laws to limit the number of firearms to be held by any one individual, limiting open-ended firearms licensing and the types of guns that are legal, making Australian citizenship a condition of holding a firearm license.

 

New South Wales Parliament is expected to meet on Monday to consider strengthening gun laws in the state. Albanese on Thursday announced the government would also create new laws against hate speech.