David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Just over a month ago, two hateful, violent men killed and shot 15 people in an appalling antisemitic attack at Bondi Beach, just a few miles from my home, in fact. That appalling attack happened with guns that were obtained legally. Indeed, those two hateful men between them had access to six firearms legally obtained and signed off on under our national firearms laws. We need to stop and reflect on that, and those who are opposing this legislation should stop and reflect on that fact. The appalling fact that our gun laws have failed in this instance needs to be part of a national response to this appalling antisemitic attack in Bondi. The Greens are glad that we've been able to work with the government to ensure that legislation that will establish a national firearms buyback, legislation that will ensure that security agencies and police around this country will be able to share in real time the security information they have about individuals before they're given a gun licence and before they're given guns, will become lawful, essential and necessary after the legislation passes. We're also proud to be supporting legislation that stops some of the most dangerous weapons being imported into this country and available for acts of violence.

But we won't be supporting—and we've made it clear to the government we will not be supporting—their raft of other proposed changes, to ban people and organisations whose core values are about supporting human rights and opposing genocide, to target groups who have been saying clearly that our government should do all it can to stop the genocide in Gaza. We know that there are millions of Australians right now deeply anxious that not this legislation but the legislation that will follow it about proscribing organisations and putting people in jail for their thoughts, far from making them safe, will be threatening them, their friends, their families and their communities for the crime, in the eyes of the Labor Party and the coalition, of opposing a genocide and standing up for global human rights.

I want to return to this legislation. This is legislation to support the national firearms buyback, to allow that information-sharing to happen and to stop some of the most dangerous weapons and components coming into this country. I want to start by thanking the Australian Gun Safety Alliance, the Alannah & Madeline Foundation, Gun Control Australia and the Public Health Association of Australia for their advice and legislation, because this legislation, unlike the other legislation being rushed through this parliament, has been a long time coming. It has been the subject of detailed submissions and repeated calls from civil society saying, 'Ensure that our national firearms laws are meeting the moment.' National gun buybacks are not novel; they've happened before. They have taken weapons out of homes that should never have been in homes. They've reduced the number of firearms in this country. They have saved countless lives. As a Greens Senator, I feel sure that this national firearms buyback will also save countless lives.

The advice of those community organisations has been consistent, it has been principled, and it has been focused on gun safety. Unlike the coalition, the Greens aren't taking advice from firearms manufacturers like Beretta. We're not taking donations from firearms importers and sellers like NIOA. We don't follow the lead of the global arms industry like the coalition does. And we definitely don't import toxic concepts from the United States, Trumpian US concepts, like the right to bear arms, when we're talking about firearms. Firearms are not a right in this country; they are a privilege. When we have the coalition come in here and try and equate firearms laws with vehicle safety, or guns with motor vehicles, it shows how they have so lost touch. They don't understand that, unlike motor vehicles, the purpose of guns is to kill. If the coalition can't understand that basic principle, and if they're not troubled by the fact that those two hateful men on Bondi Beach had access to more than six legal firearms, and that New South Wales police didn't have access to security information from the AFP and other policing agencies when they gave a firearms licence and firearms to one of those men—which wasn't shared in real time—they should review their consciences and they most definitely should review their politics.

The Greens are deeply concerned by those gaps in our firearms laws, and we've been concerned about gaps like that for well over a decade. I also want to note the extensive work by the Australia Institute on tracking the number of firearms in this country and looking at the gun control settings that have allowed the rapid growth of lethal weapons in our community.

I also want to thank my team, my chief of staff and others, who have for years now been tracking gun numbers in New South Wales. We have seen a disturbing rise of firearms in this country since Port Arthur. I say that as a former state MP and now as a senator. We have continued to press for data—initially from New South Wales but now also nationally—about the number of guns in this country. Appallingly, only New South Wales provides that data—and only New South Wales provides that data because my office, over a number of years, took them to court to produce that data so that we could see the number of guns in suburbs and so that people had a sense of whether or not they were living near private arsenals.

That data, that is now found in toomanyguns.org, shows that as of 2016—when we first began getting that data—there were 850,000 registered firearms in New South Wales. But the data that's now been released, as of June 2025, shows that there are more than 1,026,000 registered firearms in New South Wales—and that doesn't include collectors or dealers. There are private arsenals in our suburbs where people hold almost 300 firearms. There are multiple individuals in suburban Sydney who hold over 200 firearms and dozens who hold over 100 firearms. Why do our firearms laws allow private arsenals to be held in our suburban centres in this country?

Thankfully, after pressure from the Greens and gun safety advocates, some of those loopholes have been closed in New South Wales. But the coalition is still fighting this in Queensland, still pushing so that it doesn't get adopted in South Australia and still basically silent in Tasmania. The Northern Territory coalition have said that they don't support caps on firearms.

This is about community safety, and the coalition comes in here, armed with donations from the firearms industry, to oppose community safety laws. They make specious arguments about needing dozens of weapons to shoot wallabies. The most extreme case was when they related it to somebody who wants to compete in every single shooting sport in the Olympics, and said that that's why these gun caps don't work. Take a reality check about what's going to make our community safe. A gun buyback and sensible gun limits in our suburbs and cities are definitely taking a step toward safety.

I acknowledge that this is a moment where we can take practical steps to take guns away from people who should never have got them and to allow for the sharing of real-time security information. When police in one state, or the AFP, have information about people who are taking part in hateful ideologies, that can be shared with police in real time before those people get gun licences and firearms.

I say again: How is it that One Nation and the coalition oppose those law changes? How is it you could oppose the sharing in real time between our security agencies about whether people are engaged in hateful extremist ideologies so they can ensure that they don't get a firearm? We saw the effect of it in Bondi. With all of the politics and all of the hateful language directed against the Greens in this debate, take a moment and reflect on the coalition opposing those law changes here. It shows their politics, and it shows that they take funds from the firearms industry, and it shows that they'll never partner with the community about gun safety laws. What a change from 1996, when the coalition actually had some backbone and actually did good work. I am no friend of John Howard, but I will acknowledge that, at that point, the coalition showed the leadership that's been missing in the last four weeks on this.

I do note that there are concerns raised by groups including the National Farmers' Federation and that there are questions still to be answered about the gun buyback. We want to ensure, and we'd like a commitment from the government, that fair value will be paid to ensure that the gun buyback will be as effective as it possibly can be and take as many guns that shouldn't be in circulation out of circulation as it can. We'd ask the government to make the commitment in the course of this debate.

I also want to credit the Gun Safety Alliance for pressing for another essential reform. One of the reasons we're in this mess is that there is no body, no organisation, in this country whose job it is to futureproof our firearms laws—to see whether or not there are gaps that need to be fixed. There is plenty of lobbying from the firearms industry trying to put new gaps in our laws, but there's no way, in this country, that that sits together with the national government and state and federal governments to plug the holes and check for community safety. So I am glad that, in the course of these negotiations, the Greens have secured a clear commitment from the government—in writing, from the Minister for Home Affairs—to establish a national firearms safety council that will do that work, bring together those gun safety advocates from the Gun Safety Alliance and community representatives and ensure that we are regularly reporting to parliament not just to make our national gun laws safe for 19 January 2026 but to futureproof them going forward.

I also raise concerns that I think are valid about the potential proliferation of 3D-printed weapons. I want to thank the Minister for Home Affairs's office for their engagement around their firearms offences that deal with the issue of 3D printing. I note that these federal laws will allow some 3D alteration printing to firearms as long as they comply with the licence and class of weapon that's been obtained. These are areas of hard regulation. The National Firearms Register, or any national laws, needs to ensure that there is immediate constant reference back and communication back to the state registries and territory registries about any such alteration. This parliament, and the national firearms safety council, needs to keep a close and continued surveillance on 3D-printed weapons.

I finish with this: two hateful men with a hateful ideology are dangerous and need to be addressed by our parliaments and need to be addressed by all of us, collectively, if we can, but two hateful men with access to multiple firearms—if they've got access legally to multiple firearms, we have an obligation to act. The Greens are proud to always support the community on gun safety. We're proud to talk down and oppose those whose primary interest comes from the firearms lobby. And, in what is otherwise a toxic mess of a week in this parliament, we're proud to support legislation that will take those important steps for gun safety across the country.