Australia passes tighter gun control laws, weeks after Bondi massacre

By LAURA CHUNG

Australia on Tuesday passed new laws that implement a national gun buyback, limit imports of firearms and tighten background checks, swiftly adopting tougher gun control measures after a mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in December.

The moves echoed Australia’s legislative response to a massacre decades ago, which made the country a model for gun control in the eyes of many. But critics said the new legislation, and another bill promising to crack down on hate speech, had been rushed and received limited scrutiny. Some have said that the push for new gun laws belied a failure by the government to address antisemitism in the country.

The guns used in the attack on Dec. 14, in which two men killed 15 people and wounded dozens of others at Bondi Beach in Sydney, were bought legally. The authorities have characterized the shooting as a terrorist attack motivated by antisemitic ideology.

There are now more than 4 million firearms in Australia, a record, according to authorities. Details of the gun buyback have yet to be finalized, but it is expected to be the largest since the one conducted after the 1996 mass shooting in Port Arthur, Tasmania, where a gunman killed 35 people. That buyback was announced 12 days after the shooting.

Under the new laws, background checks for people applying for firearm licenses can now include an assessment by national intelligence agencies, and in some cases, authorities will check to see whether the applicant is an Australian citizen. Only citizens will be allowed to import guns.

“The terrorists had hate in their hearts, but they also had high-powered rifles in their hands,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Parliament before the vote Tuesday. “We’re taking action on both — tackling antisemitism, tackling hate, and getting dangerous guns off our streets.”

Despite some opposition to the bill, it passed easily in a special session of Parliament in Canberra, the capital. Lawmakers were recalled two weeks early from a summer break by Albanese, whose popularity has slumped since the Bondi attack.

Later on Tuesday, Parliament passed the bill targeting hate speech, which critics say could have damaging repercussions for freedom of expression. It allows the government to designate organizations as hate groups if they promote violence, and it gives authorities more leeway to deny entry visas to people with extremist views.

Sen. Mehreen Faruqi, the deputy leader of the Greens party, called the bill “appalling,” saying it was not a “responsible response” to racism and extremism.

“This bill will have a chilling and draconian effect on political debate, on protest, on civil rights and on people speaking up against human rights abuses perpetrated by Israel or any other nation-state,” she said.

Some parts of the bill, which would have made it an offense to incite hate or spread ideas of “racial superiority” over another person or group, were dropped this week after politicians, legal experts and others said they would impede freedom of speech.