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WHEN a gunman killed 35 people in Tasmania in 1996, Australia’s political leaders moved swiftly and in unison to enact some of the toughest gun laws in the Western world. Today, after 15 people were murdered in an antisemitic attack at a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach, that unity has fractured.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s call for tighter gun controls has met resistance from ascendant right-wing populists and sections of the conservative mainstream, underscoring a more polarised political climate than the one that followed the Port Arthur massacre.
Rather than a “rally around the flag moment of national unity”, Albanese is facing “distrust and unhappiness”, said Simon Jackman, a political scientist at the University of Sydney.
Since Sunday’s attack, conservative figures and some Jewish leaders have accused Albanese of failing to adequately confront rising antisemitism, turning the crisis into a defining test of his leadership. Albanese, whose centre-left Labor party holds a commanding parliamentary majority, has defended his record and announced additional measures aimed at hate speech.
The mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration came as right-wing populists have surged in opinion polls by tapping into public anxiety over immigration and crime. Authorities said the attack was inspired by Islamic State.
Officials said one of the attackers, Sajid Akram, who was shot dead by police, was the legal owner of six firearms. Akram obtained his gun licence in 2023, despite the fact that his son and alleged accomplice, Naveed Akram, had been scrutinised by intelligence agencies in 2019 over alleged links to individuals convicted of terrorism offences.
The case has exposed gaps in firearms licensing assessments and information-sharing between agencies, weaknesses policymakers say they now intend to close.
On Friday, Albanese said the government would move to limit the number of guns an individual can own and restrict the types of firearms that are legal, establish a national firearms register, expand background checks using intelligence data, introduce periodic licence reviews and require Australian citizenship for gun ownership.
He also said the government would buy back surplus and newly banned firearms from private owners, a move he said would remove hundreds of thousands of weapons from circulation.
Battle lines are now being drawn over gun reform, in a debate complicated by the antisemitic motive behind the Bondi attack, a factor absent from the 1996 Port Arthur tragedy.
The debate is being closely watched in the United States, where Australia’s gun laws are often cited by gun control advocates and dismissed by the American gun lobby, which has said such restrictions do not work.
“In Australia there has never really been that bedrock of gun ownership as a right of citizenship, it’s never been there legally or culturally,” Jackman said. “There is way more acceptance in Australia of the government’s right and indeed obligation to regulate gun ownership.”
Yet he said some Australian conservatives were now echoing arguments more familiar in the United States, marking a sharp departure from the consensus politics of 1996.
The populist One Nation party has ruled out backing tougher firearms laws. Party founder Pauline Hanson visited Bondi this week alongside her new recruit, Barnaby Joyce, who recently defected from the rural-based National party.
“It is not about the guns. It’s the person behind the guns,” Hanson said.
One Nation, which holds four seats in the Senate, has surged in recent polls, largely at the expense of the conservative Liberal-National coalition.
Liberal leader Sussan Ley said tighter gun laws “should be on the table” and that she would consider “sensible” proposals, but stopped short of committing to a position, instead focusing her attacks on what she described as the government’s failure to confront antisemitism.
Some of her coalition partners in the Nationals showed little appetite for reform.
“This was an act of evil by Islamic terrorists and that is who the investigation needs to be focused on, not law-abiding gun owners,” said Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie.
Andrew Willcox, a conservative coalition lawmaker from Queensland, said farmers and sporting shooters should not be penalised.
“This is not a gun control issue; it is a leadership and security failure,” he said.
Concerns from rural Australia have also been aired on the national broadcaster, with farmers and hunters questioning how far reforms might go.
Grant Roberts, who runs a 186,000-acre cattle property in outback New South Wales, said he keeps three guns securely locked away to control pests.
“We need our guns, no question – will the government listen? How dramatic will the change be?” he said.
Liberal lawmaker Andrew Hastie, a gun club member and former soldier, declined to say whether he supported tighter gun laws, calling the debate “a massive deflection from the prime minister”.
Former prime minister John Howard, who led the 1996 gun law overhaul that included mandatory background checks, a ban on semiautomatic weapons and a national buyback, said gun control should not be used “as a diversion” from tackling antisemitism.
Albanese said the government would address both the motivation and the method behind the Bondi attack.
“There’s something wrong with the licensing laws when this guy can have six high powered rifles,” he said, referring to Sajid Akram.
The deepening divisions reflect a broader global trend in which populist movements have challenged long-standing policy consensus on issues ranging from immigration to firearms.
Arthur Sinodinos, a former Australian ambassador to Washington and adviser to Howard, said bipartisan support for gun law changes was unlikely in 2025.
“What is different today is One Nation is there, it is much stronger, it will capitalize on this issue,” he said. “We already have seen Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce out there and touting that they won’t support this – they see a constituency in the bush.”
For the Liberal Party, outright opposition to gun reform risks deepening its losses in Sydney and Melbourne, where it has ceded traditional seats to centrist independents.
Public opinion appears to favour tougher laws. A January poll by the Australia Institute found 64 per cent of respondents supported stricter gun controls, while a quarter wanted no change and 6 per cent favoured rolling restrictions back. Support for tighter laws was weakest among One Nation voters.
International reactions have also fed into the debate. US President Donald Trump said the Bondi attack showed the world needed to “stand together against the evil forces of radical Islamic terrorism”. Former Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley wrote on X that “Australia doesn’t need to tighten gun control laws”.
Australia traditionally disengages from politics during the southern summer, a pause that Jackman said could offer Albanese a circuit-breaker. But he warned of mounting pressure on Ley from right-wing leadership challengers within the Liberal Party, with Hastie often cited as a potential contender.
Australia will mark one week since the Bondi Beach massacre with a national day of reflection, Albanese said on Friday, as he outlined plans for a sweeping gun buyback scheme.
He urged Australians to light candles at 6.47pm on Sunday, “exactly one week since the attack unfolded”.
“This day is about standing with the Jewish community, wrapping our arms around them, and all Australians sharing their grief,” Albanese said.
“It is a moment to pause, reflect, and affirm that hatred and violence will never define who we are as Australians.”
A separate national day of mourning will be held in the new year, he said, allowing families time to bury their loved ones and support those still recovering.
Albanese said the forthcoming buyback would “purchase surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms” and would be the largest such effort since 1996.
“Australia’s gun laws were substantially reformed after the Port Arthur tragedy,” he said. “The terrible events at Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets.”
Sajid Akram and his son Naveed are accused of killing 15 people in the antisemitic attack at Bondi Beach on Sunday evening, the deadliest mass shooting in Australia since Port Arthur. - December 19, 2025