Government announces national firearm buyback scheme

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a national gun buyback scheme that he has dubbed the biggest since the Port Arthur Massacre almost 30 years ago in the aftermath of the Bondi shootings.

Mr Albanese said on Friday that the cost of the buyback scheme would be shared with the states and territories, and expects hundreds of thousands of firearms to be collected and destroyed.

“We know that one of these terrorists held a firearm licence and had six guns, in spite of living in the middle of Sydney’s suburbs, at Bonnyrigg,” he said.

“There’s no reason why someone in that situation needed that many guns.”

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said that, pending the implementation of a cap on the amount of guns able to be held by Australian licence holders, the buyback would be a mandatory scheme for those having more guns than the new laws allow.

“It has been negotiated in terms of what the numbers should be, but effectively, if it becomes illegal to be holding the number of firearms you hold, you have to dispose of them, and the buyback scheme is a way that would happen.”

Mr Albanese said there were currently more than 4 million firearms in Australia, more than at the time of the Port Arthur Massacre.

The Australian Federal Police will be responsible for the destruction of the firearms handed over as part of the national buyback scheme.