NSW set to pass Australia’s toughest gun laws after Parliament recalled three days before Christmas

NSW is set to have Australia’s toughest gun laws in the wake of Australia’s worst-ever home-grown terrorist attack following a special sitting of Parliament three days before Christmas.

Premier Chris Minns recalled Parliament for an “emergency session” on Monday in a bid to impose a cap of four firearms per individual, with strict exemptions for primary producers and sporting shooters, who would be allowed to hold a maximum of 10 firearms.

“It’s not going to be perfect, I acknowledge that. We can make a major step in dramatically reducing the number of firearms in our community,” Mr Minns told reporters.

“We’re the country’s biggest state, we’re now going to have the toughest gun laws.”

The Liberal Party voiced support for Labor’s proposed laws modelled on Western Australia’s laws but its junior regional Coalition partner, the Nationals, were opposed, along with NSW Farmers.

Tougher licence checks would also deprive an individual for a right to appeal a decision banning them from having a firearm.

New gun restrictions are part of Labor’s omnibus Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 which also bans terrorist flags and gives police the power to make someone remove a face covering at a rally and ban protests for 14 days after a terrorist act.

Labor’s legislation was expected to pass through the lower house on Monday night with Liberal Party support, before it was sent to the upper house on Tuesday morning for further debate. The proposal would become law if the Liberal Party backed Labor in both houses of Parliament, with the Liberal Party only having four regional lower house MPs against the Nationals’ tally of 11.

A separate UK-style bill to criminalise the chant “globalise the intifada” is being sent to a parliamentary committee ahead of a vote on February 11 when lawmakers return from their summer holidays.

“It’s used in common parlance, in demonstrations both here and around the world, are a call to a global Intifada — not in the Middle East, not in Israel or Gaza but here in Sydney, in our streets,” Mr Minns said.

“In those circumstances, I do believe it leads to a culture and an environment of heightened disunity and an invitation to violence.”

The recall of Parliament during the usual summer break is occurring eight days after 15 people including a 10-year-old girl, observing the first day of the Jewish Hanukkah festival, were fatally gunned down at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in the worst-ever terrorist attack on Australian soil.

“The evil of anti-Semitism and violent Islamist extremism and words of hate can lead to actions of hatred with devastating consequences,” Mr Minns told Parliament.

“Today, at the end of Hanukkah, we’ve returned to the Parliament to acknowledge in one, unanimous voice, that we too are spent with grief.”

Liberal Opposition leader Kellie Sloane, whose Vaucluse electorate covers Bondi where 15 innocent people were killed last week, declared on Monday morning that her party would support Labor’s bill with amendments for community safety and social cohesion.

“Our approach is constructive and responsible,” she said in a statement.

“It is incumbent on Parliament to ensure these reforms are as strong as possible, the framework is robust, targeted and fit for purpose, and consistent with the principles we have previously outlined.”

But Nationals leader Gurmesh Singh declared his party would oppose the bill in its entirety, based on its gun restrictions, despite supporting the hate speech elements of it.

“These are complex and sensitive issues, and they demand careful and collaborate lawmaking,” he told Parliament.

“One late phone call last night for all regional representatives is not consultation.”

Should the laws pass through both houses of Parliament, New South Wales would have Australia’s strictest gun laws, which Mr Minns said had been modelled on Western Australia’s cap of 10 firearms for farmers and five for recreational hunters introduced last year.

Sarah Davies, the chief executive of the Alannah & Madeline Foundation, read out a statement from Walter Mikac, who lost both his daughters and his wife Nanette in the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania.

“Today, I commend Premier Minns and the New South Wales Government for acting swiftly and decisively to close critical gaps in our gun laws,” she said on his behalf.

Sajid Akram, a 50-year-old gunman involved in the Bondi massacre, had six licensed firearms as a member of a gun club. He was shot dead by police during the December 14 massacre. His surviving son Naveed Akram, 24, is facing 59 charges including 15 for murder and 40 for attempted murder, committing a terrorist attack and displaying a banned terrorist symbol.

NSW Farmers president Xavier Martin said he the proposed new laws were impractical for farmers.

“We’re now being told that farmers have to sign up to a gun club in order to keep their licence. What will this mean for farmers who live hours away from their closest gun club?”

The Federal Labor member for Hunter Dan Repacholi, an Olympic sporting shooter before getting into politics, has spoken out against the State Labor government’s gun law proposal.

“My position is consistent and clear. Australia has strong gun laws and they save lives, but I do not support changes that unfairly target responsible, law-abiding firearms owners,” he said on Facebook.

“Measures that are blunt, symbolic, or simply designed to appease public anger without improving safety are not the answer.”

Labor lost the election and the previously safe State seat of Cessnock, in the Hunter Valley, in 1988 after country voters across NSW turned on then premier Barrie Unsworth for using regulation to ban semi-automatic weapons, following a spate of shootings in Sydney and Melbourne in 1987.

Former Liberal prime minister John Howard, who led a national move to ban semi-automatic and automatic guns after the Port Arthur massacre, last week said gun laws should not be a cover for a failure to address anti-Semitism.

The Minns Government is also putting forward new legislation to outlaw displays of terrorist symbols, like the ISIS flag, without a reasonable excuse.

The offence will carry a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment or a $22,000 fine for individuals and up to $110,000 for organisations, with exceptions for academic or public interest purposes.

Police would also be given more powers to force someone to remove a face covering during a public assembly and not just if they are arrested or suspected of committing a serious, criminal offence.

The Government is also moving to restrict public protests for 14 days after a terrorist attack, with the restrictions able to be extended for 14-day increments over three months.

“It gives powers to police to completely ban all protests, all assemblies in extraordinary discretion around locations,” NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Timothy Roberts told The Nightly.

“It’s far too broad a power at a time when protest has been a divisive issue in our community and it’s a completely inflammatory proposal.”

This is to avoid a repeat of a march on the Opera House and street celebrations in Lakemba, in Sydney’s south-west, following the Hamas-led murder of 1200 Israelis in October 2023.