Australia’s state of NSW tightens gun, protest laws after Bondi fatal mass shooting
Sydney, Dec 24 (IANS/GURPUNEET SIDHU) The parliament of Australia’s state of New South Wales (NSW) had passed tough new gun and protest laws in response to the fatal mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported on Wednesday.
ABC said that the bill, which packaged gun reforms with a ban on protests for up to three months, passed 18 votes to eight just before 3 a.m. local time on Wednesday and included a key amendment on tightening firearms laws for people with suspected terrorist links.
The legislation went back to the lower house to be rubberstamped, it added.
The mass shooting, which targeted an event celebrating the first day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, killed 15 victims on December 14, Xinhua news agency reported.
On Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that the Christmas period will be colored by ‘grief and sadness’ following the Bondi Beach terror attack.
Albanese said at a press conference in Canberra that the fatal shooting of 15 people that targeted a Jewish festival at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on December 14 was an antisemitic attack on the Jewish community as well as an attack on “Australian values and on Australian society.”
He said that the Christmas period would feel different for many as a result of the attack, but praised the courage, kindness and compassion shown by Australians.
“What is normally a time of celebration and family and faith will this year be colored by grief and sadness, but in the weeks since the attack, we’ve also seen the best of the Australian character and the best of Australian spirit,” he said.
Albanese was speaking in Canberra alongside Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke, who said that the federal government has begun drafting legislation for stricter gun control laws that will be introduced to parliament in 2026.
Burke had said that the federal firearms reform package will include a national firearms buyback scheme announced by Albanese on Friday, as well as new import controls for firearm-related goods and new criminal offenses relating to 3D-printed firearms.
Additionally, Burke had said that the government is accelerating work to establish a national firearms register and a hate crimes database that will provide the “best possible information” to the public and to authorities responsible for issuing gun licenses.
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