Jamie Chaffey (Parkes, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

First and foremost, I want to acknowledge that Sunday 14 December 2025 will be remembered in Australian history as the day of the worst terrorist attack on our shores. Fifteen innocent people attending the Jewish celebrations at Bondi died, and may they rest in peace. This heinous act was the actions of two Islamic extremist terrorists with murderous intent as their sole motivation—and, yes, these terrorists used firearms, but they also prepared pipe bombs, and the truth is we may never know the full intent of their plan. Could they have planned to use the vehicle to drive into crowds of people?

After weeks of pressure from all sectors of the Australian community, the Prime Minister has finally agreed to hold a royal commission into antisemitism. All of Australia will be waiting for the findings and the recommendations that will guide this place on actions required to stamp out antisemitism and prevent any future senseless loss of lives. The faulty nature of this rushed legislation has been highlighted by the fact that at the eleventh hour the omnibus bill was radically altered. In yet another dirty deal between the Albanese government and the Greens, democracy was stitched up before the bill even hit the floor of this parliament.

Today, I rise to speak against the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Firearms and Customs Laws) Bill 2026, which has been carved out from another bill that we barely had time to comprehend. We are now left to debate a major matter for Australians without adequate time to debate democratically and offer amendments to support those regional Australians the Albanese government has forgotten. Since that terrible day at Bondi, when attention returned to gun laws, I've been swamped with letters, emails and phone calls from regional Australians that this government has let down. Anger is growing to fever pitch in most of the towns and villages in the Parkes electorate and across regional Australia.

In the months since the last federal election, the Albanese government has passed a number of pieces of legislation—many times in backdoor deals with the Greens—that have all had negative impacts on regional Australia. I'm talking about the Environmental Protection Reform Bill 2025, changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme and changes to water regulation. And the Labor government now has regional Australia in its sights with these national gun laws.

The calls and letters about these gun laws have been coming from Broken Hill, Cobar, Parkes, Gilgandra, Dubbo, Curlewis, Gunnedah, West Wyalong, Lake Cargelligo and many more communities throughout the Parkes electorate. My people are worried; regional Australians are anxious. Guns are not a novelty in regional Australia. They're a necessity for pest animal control, livestock protection and land management. Primary producers already follow tough regulations to retain their firearms. For many farmers, guns are simply an essential part of business. They are essential for providing the rest of the country and the rest of the world with quality food and fibre. Why are all the regional Australians paying the price for the very few who have done the wrong thing?

Since terrorists pulled the trigger at Bondi, the reverberations have been felt right across regional Australia. New gun laws were rushed through the New South Wales parliament on Christmas Eve. Gun owners across New South Wales will face further restrictions on the number of firearms that they can own. There are changes in categories of firearms available for farmers and also for recreational shooters.

This bill has very little detail on the proposed gun buyback scheme. There is no detail in here to tell us how it will work, when it will happen and how much it will cost. Gun laws are a state-by-state and territory-by-territory concern. How can this be implemented at all when there are so many different laws, so many different approaches and so many different perspectives? Will the states and territories even agree to fund this buyback scheme? If this Labor-Greens buyback scheme does proceed, gun owners must be compensated at full and fair market value for the property that they surrender—not just the firearms but also any firearm parts, accessories, ammunition, components and reloading equipment. Compensation must also be made available for hardship and the loss of any business, including any buyouts of a business deemed unviable as a result of the introduction of this crazy legislation. It would be entirely irresponsible for us to support something that has very few parameters and contested costings and won't achieve the result of preventing terrorism on our shores.

The people of the Parkes electorate and regional Australia are tired of their lives and their livelihoods being bartered away by Labor with the Greens. It's time to remember who we are trying to protect—and that is all Australians.

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