‘Keep people safe’: guns, rallies reined in after Bondi
Farid Farid and Dominic Giannini |
Tough reforms cracking down on guns and gatherings are set to be passed after the Bondi terrorist attack that claimed 15 lives, despite warnings about politicising the massacre.
NSW parliament has been urgently recalled days before Christmas to pass legislation cutting across multiple areas, including laws to cap gun ownership at four firearms and limit magazine capacity.
Banning protests during a terrorism designation has the numbers to pass despite strident opposition from civil liberties groups.
Premier Chris Minns, who expressed regret for letting down Jewish-Australians and NSW residents for the gruesome beach shooting, defended the “extraordinary” measures as necessary to restore a sense of safety.
“We can’t pretend that the world is the same as it was before that terrorist incident on Sunday,” he told reporters on Monday.
“My government’s number one priority is to keep the people of NSW safe and that means making these changes.”
He has been lambasted by the opposition and gun advocacy groups over the rushed legislation and lack of consultation.
The bills will be voted on in the lower house on Monday evening, with the upper house to pore over the extensive amendments on Tuesday.
Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane pledged the Liberals’ support for gun reform after the December 14 shooting attack, meaning the full suite of changes are expected to become law.
But she expressed “serious reservations” about the legislation being rushed through parliament.
The Liberals’ junior coalition partner the Nationals came out against the gun reforms, saying they applied arbitrary limits and didn’t give regional businesses the tools they needed.
“The proposed reforms would not have stopped last Sunday’s attack and fail to address the root cause of the issue – anti-Semitism,” the rural party said.
But the premier said it was time to put politics aside in the name of community safety to deliver “the toughest firearm reforms in the country”.
The Liberals’ support will be enough to ensure the laws’ passage, along with controversial protest restrictions that will ban public assemblies once a terrorist designation has been made by police.
The designation will last 14 days and can be extended for up to three months.
Civil liberties groups have branded the ban an overreach, while pro-Palestinian protesters have rejected any link between peaceful demonstrations criticising Israel and the Bondi terrorist attack.
Australian Federal Police said the father-son duo who carried out the shooting were inspired by terrorist group Islamic State after police found two home-made flags bearing its insignia in a car belonging to 24-year-old Naveed Akram.
Mr Minns has blamed pro-Palestinian protests for sowing anti-Semitic rhetoric, which could develop into violence as “it’s unleashing forces that the organisers of the protests can’t control”.
He argued he was “drawing a line in the sand” about phrases used by activists, specifically “Globalise the Intifada”, by outlawing them under further hate speech amendments that are being referred to a parliamentary committee in 2026.
“We have have to do everything we can to ensure that words that are said at a rally are not used by somebody at a later point for violent retribution on Sydney streets,” he said.
In Victoria, similar laws are being pushed with Premier Jacinta Allen announcing protest laws would be changed in coming months.
But The Jewish Council of Australia’s Naama Blatman accused Mr Minns of politicising grief and tragedy to pass laws that stifled freedoms.
“These laws are borne of political pressure, not a genuine consideration for the safety of our communities,” she said.
Greens MP Sue Higginson said the government’s response was heading down a dangerous path of “diluting our democracy”.
AAP
