New South Wales Liberal leader Kellie Sloane has pledged to freeze the state’s gun buyback scheme and roll back firearm ownership restrictions while a commission of inquiry examines the response to the Bondi massacre.
The scheme is due to begin on November 2, offering compensation to licence holders affected by new ownership limits and the reclassification of some weapons.
Ms Sloane said the priority should be tackling organised crime, gangland violence, terrorism and illegal trafficking. She accused the Labor government of rushing complex legislation through without proper consultation with affected groups.
Under her proposal, the buyback would be halted for all licensed firearm owners until the inquiry had completed its work and the government had responded to its recommendations.
A future NSW Liberal government would also remove what Ms Sloane described as Labor’s arbitrary firearm ownership caps for primary producers and competition sporting shooters with genuine and demonstrable needs.
“We will fix Labor’s flawed laws and back our police with the powers and resources they need,” she said.
Police and Counter-terrorism Minister Yasmin Catley condemned the proposal as a “stunning backflip”, arguing that it would leave more guns in circulation.
“On an issue as serious as gun safety, the coalition has gone from supporting stronger laws after Bondi to promising to unwind them as One Nation campaigns for them to be repealed,” Ms Catley said.
NSW Farmers president Rebecca Reardon welcomed the opposition’s position, while stressing that firearms policy needed to be workable and developed with those affected.
“Farmers understand the importance of strong firearms laws and safe communities,” she said. “But good policy must also be practical, evidence-based and developed in genuine partnership with the people it affects.”
She said NSW Farmers would continue representing its members to ensure they were treated fairly and had access to the tools required to run productive farm businesses.
The NSW Government tightened firearms laws in the days after the massacre, introducing ownership limits, changing the classification of certain weapons, strengthening background checks and reducing the validity of firearms licences from five years to two.
NSW joined the federal gun buyback as a partner in August, followed by the ACT on August 22. Licensed firearm owners, sporting shooters, collectors and firearms businesses have criticised the government’s response to the shootings.
Nationally, Nationals leader David Littleproud introduced a bill earlier in September seeking to repeal the scheme as a symbolic protest. He said the programme remained stalled, with Queensland, the Northern Territory and Victoria declining to participate, Tasmania pursuing separate arrangements and South Australia refusing to amend its laws.
