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In the shadow of grief and shock following the Port Arthur massacre, Australia rose to its best self as political leaders forged a bipartisan consensus that became the envy of the world.
Led by then-prime minister John Howard, the nation chose public safety over gun proliferation. Over just one year, 644,000 semi-automatic and pump-action firearms – one-third of all privately owned guns at the time – were handed over and destroyed.
Three decades on, something has gone horribly wrong with our politics. Despite the deadliest terrorist attack in Australian history playing out at Bondi Beach in December 2025, we have not been able to again rise to the moment, and for that there is plenty of blame to go around.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese must shoulder much of the responsibility. He promised a fresh national gun buyback but has failed to deliver.
It is true that most states and territories have refused to sign up due to fear of a One Nation-fuelled backlash at the polls and disagreements over who should pay.
But it is too simplistic for Albanese and Labor to blame recalcitrant states for the scheme’s collapse. Albanese announced the idea and, as the nation’s leader, had a unique obligation to make the case for change, as Howard did in interviews, rallies and parliamentary dispatches. By contrast, Albanese went missing the moment the scheme ran into early signs of trouble.
At this point, NSW and the ACT are the only jurisdictions to have publicly pledged to be part of the new buyback scheme.
State leaders such as Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan should be condemned for putting their own political survival ahead of the national good. Allan ordered an independent review of the state’s gun laws following Bondi but when it was delivered by former police commissioner Ken Lay, she swiftly rejected a key recommendation to impose caps on how many firearms an individual can own. Allan denies the Victorian election in November was a factor, but anyone with the slightest comprehension of politics knows that’s precisely why she folded.
While there are mixed views in the community on a buyback, the fact is national cabinet agreed to do it, security agencies and police want it, and the interim report of the royal commission into antisemitism explicitly recommended it.
The Herald supports a new national gun buyback. There are now far more guns in Australia than at the time of the Port Arthur massacre, and we must ensure that the strength of the 1996 reforms is not eroded. The NSW government should get a move on and finalise the design and mechanics of the scheme.
We advocate for the buyback recognising law-abiding gun owners will bear the brunt of change. They must be properly compensated at market value for the weapons they are asked to hand over, and better informed than the information vacuum they’re being subjected to.
We also believe that a buyback in isolation is not enough. Governments must do more to crack down on illegal firearms on our streets, and close the yawning intelligence gaps that allowed those deadly shots to ring out in Bondi.
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