Submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security
Inquiry into the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026
Executive Summary
Gun Control Australia (GCA) welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security’s inquiry into the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026 (the Bill).
This submission addresses only the firearms and public safety measures contained in the Bill. GCA does not comment on other elements of the proposed legislation.
We acknowledge the victims of the terrorist attack on 14 December, and the profound impact on their loved ones, and the broader communities affected. Australians from all walks of life should be free to gather, celebrate, and practise their faith without fear of violence.
GCA strongly supports the firearms measures in the Bill, including the establishment of a national firearms buyback framework, strengthened firearms background checking, improved national information sharing, and tighter controls on the importation of high-risk firearms and components. These measures represent a modernisation of Australia’s gun safety framework and are consistent with Australia’s long-standing, evidence-based approach to firearms regulation.
While formal findings are pending, improved national information-sharing and tighter controls on the importation of high-risk firearm components may have reduced the perpetrators’ capacity to carry out the terrorist attack, and will certainly reduce the likelihood and impact of future mass shootings. Enhanced information-sharing could have influenced the decision to grant a firearms licence, while stricter import controls may have limited access to high-powered firearms.
Public support for strong gun laws in Australia remains overwhelming. A YouGov poll commissioned in December found that 92 per cent of Australians support stronger gun laws. Other polling conducted both before and after 14 December has consistently demonstrated strong public support for Australia’s existing firearms framework and for measures that strengthen it. This public confidence reflects Australia’s lived experience: coordinated national firearms regulation saves lives.
GCA’s central message to the Committee is that the effectiveness of the Bill’s firearms measures will depend not only on their passage, but on rigorous, nationally consistent implementation across states and territories, supported by appropriate national oversight.
Introduction
GCA is a national public safety organisation that has worked for more than three decades to support evidence-based firearms regulation in Australia. GCA is a member of the Australian Gun Safety Alliance.
Our work is grounded in the principle that firearms regulation is fundamentally a matter of public safety, and that access to firearms in Australia is a privilege rather than a right.
Australia’s Firearms Framework and Emerging Risks
Australia’s contemporary firearms framework was shaped by the national reforms that followed the 1996 Port Arthur massacre and find expression in the National Firearms Agreement (NFA). Those reforms recognised that firearms regulation requires coordinated national action and that public safety must be the guiding principle. In other words, we strongly advocate for a public health model of firearm control.
The outcomes of the NFA are well established. Following its implementation, Australia experienced substantial reductions in firearm deaths and firearm suicides, and mass shooting events involving semi-automatic rifles and shotguns were effectively eliminated. Internationally, Australia has been cited as a best-practice example of effective gun regulation.
However, those reforms are now approaching thirty years old. Since that time, firearms technologies and markets have continued to evolve, and weapons capable of inflicting mass casualties are now widely available in Australia. At the same time, regulatory settings across Australian states and territories have gradually diverged.
Because Australia has open internal borders, national gun safety is only as strong as the weakest jurisdiction. In the absence of a standing national oversight mechanism, gaps in regulation and enforcement have emerged incrementally and largely outside public scrutiny. This has created a growing gap between Australia’s gun-safety objectives and the regulatory reality on the ground.
The firearms measures in the Bill should be understood as a response to this evolving risk environment.
Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026
The firearms provisions in the Bill collectively modernise key elements of Australia’s federal firearms framework. They do not represent a departure from Australia’s established approach; rather, they extend and update national mechanisms first developed in the 1990s.
In particular, the Bill establishes a national firearms buyback framework, strengthens firearms background checking, improves national information sharing and enforcement coordination, and tightens controls on the importation of high-risk firearms and critical components.
Gun Control Australia supports the passage of these measures.
National Firearms Buyback Framework
The Bill establishes a national firearms buyback framework with Commonwealth support and state and territory delivery. The exposure draft contemplates a default buyback period from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2027, with states responsible for administering compensation schemes within a nationally consistent framework.
This model reflects Australia’s constitutional and practical arrangements. States and territories continue to administer licensing and operational firearms control, while the Commonwealth provides national coordination and supporting mechanisms. From a public safety perspective, the value of the Bill lies in creating the national architecture necessary for an effective buyback program.
According to statistics from the Australian Institute of Criminology, between 2011 to 2016 where the licencing status of the firearm was identified, registered firearms were used in 25% of homicide cases (Australian Institute of Criminology National Homicide Monitoring Program 2011-12 to 2015-16 as cited by The Australia Institute “Australian gun control: 29 years after Port Arthur”, May 2025, p 7)
Buybacks are a proven risk-reduction tool. Their purpose is to remove identified high-risk firearms from circulation, particularly weapons that elevate the risk of rapid, high-casualty violence. Australia’s experience following 1996 demonstrates that coordinated national buybacks can play a critical role in reducing firearm-related harm.
Because buybacks involve the use of public funds, integrity and accountability are essential. Every surrendered firearm should be tracked from handover through to destruction or legitimate government retention, supported by clear chain-of-custody arrangements, verification processes, and independent auditing.
Strengthened Firearms Background Checks
The Bill strengthens firearms background checking by enabling assessments to draw on defined national intelligence inputs, including security and criminal intelligence assessments and relevant status information where applicable. Based on publicly available information, if improved national information sharing had existed previously, one of the individuals implicated in the December terrorist act may not have been granted a firearms licence.
Firearms access is a high-consequence privilege. Background checking that can draw on relevant national intelligence is a targeted and proportionate safeguard to prevent foreseeable harm.
However, GCA emphasises that background checks alone are not sufficient. Many perpetrators of mass or ideologically motivated violence are lone actors with no prior criminal, mental health or other history that would prevent them passing a background check. Australia’s success has always rested on a layered approach that regulates who can access firearms, what types of firearms are accessible, and how many are in circulation. In short, restrictions on the availability of firearms are also crucial.
Information Sharing, Enforcement, and Import Controls
The Bill improves national information sharing by ensuring that firearms import and export data are automatically transmitted to Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission systems. It explicitly covers firearms, frames and receivers, and sound suppressors and related components.
Effective risk management depends on agencies being able to connect the dots. Fragmentation between customs, licensing authorities, and law enforcement creates opportunities for diversion, straw purchasing, and illicit supply. The Bill’s information-sharing measures directly address this risk.
The explicit treatment of frames and receivers as controlled items, together with stronger public safety and public interest tests for imports, reflects the reality that the risks posed by modern firearms extend beyond complete weapons to the supply chain for critical components. Closing these loopholes is an essential modernisation.
Emerging Risks and Opportunities
Oversight of Firearms Regulation
While the Bill establishes important federal mechanisms, lasting national consistency requires ongoing national oversight.
Australia’s firearms laws are only as strong as the weakest jurisdiction, and the current fragmentation reflects the absence of an independent national coordination mechanism focused on public safety outcomes. To address this structural gap, GCA recommends the establishment of a National Firearms Safety Council.
Such a Council would provide independent, evidence-based oversight to ensure that firearms regulation prioritises public safety, embeds public-health and community expertise, and operates free from industry or gun-lobby influence. Independence is critical to maintaining public confidence and policy integrity.
The Council could be independently funded, for example through a levy on firearms licences, gun clubs, and the firearms industry, ensuring sustainability without reliance on annual budget processes.
Core functions of a National Firearms Safety Council could include:
- Collecting, analysing, and publicly reporting national firearms data and trends
- Monitoring compliance with the reformed 2026 National Firearms Agreement and identifying regulatory gaps and inconsistencies
- Providing independent policy advice on firearms law, classification, licensing, and emerging risks
- Commissioning and coordinating research into firearms-related harm and risk pathways
- Developing national best-practice standards to support harmonisation without lowering safety thresholds
- Promoting transparency, integrity, and accountability in firearms governance, including reporting to Parliament
Such a body would not replace state and territory responsibilities but would strengthen national coordination and ensure that firearms regulation continues to evolve in response to evidence and emerging risks. The absence of such a body is a key reason why Australia’s national framework has become less effective over time, and states have taken divergent approaches to firearms regulation.
A Nationally Consistent Framework
GCA is concerned by recent public comments from the Northern Territory and Tasmania that suggest a reluctance to support strong, nationally consistent firearms reforms.
When any state or territory resists national reform, it does not only place its own community at risk; it undermines the safety of all Australians.
History is instructive. In 1996, following the Port Arthur massacre, the Commonwealth Government made it clear that if states refused to cooperate on national gun law reform, it would pursue a referendum to assume federal control over firearms regulation. The states ultimately aligned, recognising that Australians would overwhelmingly support stronger, nationally consistent firearms laws if given the choice.
That reality has not changed. Public support for strong gun laws remains overwhelming, and Australians continue to expect their governments to prioritise community safety over narrow or sectional interests. It is important to remember that only a small proportion of Australians own guns.
If any jurisdiction chooses to stand in the way of reforms necessary to protect community safety, GCA believes that the option of a referendum should again be considered, or at the very least the use of Commonwealth legislative power to give effect to the best practice principles being pursued by the Commonwealth and supportive states and territories.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Australia’s experience demonstrates that evidence-based firearms regulation saves lives. The firearms measures in the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026 are a necessary step to close existing gaps and ensure Australia’s firearms framework keeps pace with contemporary risks.
GCA recommends that the Committee:
- Support the passage of the firearms measures intact and without delay
- Emphasise the importance of consistent state and territory implementation
- Ensure strong integrity, auditing, and accountability mechanisms for buybacks, background checks, and import controls
- Support the establishment of an independent National Firearms Safety Council to provide ongoing national oversight
These measures represent the next chapter in Australia’s long-standing approach to firearms safety. GCA urges the Committee to support their adoption in the interests of public safety.
You can download our entire submission here.