Australia is set to roll out its largest nationwide gun buyback program since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced, as the nation confronts the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attack at Bondi Beach. He said the Australian Federal Police will oversee the destruction of the surrendered firearms.

The decision comes after a mass shooting at Archer Park beside Bondi Beach, where two gunmen opened fire on a crowd gathered for a Hanukkah celebration, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more. Australian authorities have declared the attack an Islamic State-linked terrorist incident motivated by antisemitism. Police also discovered two homemade bombs in a car belonging to one of the attackers, which were subsequently removed.

Surviving suspect Naveed Akram, 24, has been charged with more than 50 offences, including terrorism and 15 murders, and remains under police guard in hospital, while police killed his father and co-gunman.


Albanese said the Bondi tragedy underscored the urgent need to remove more firearms from Australian communities. The government expects hundreds of thousands of firearms to be surrendered, collected and destroyed.

“The government will establish a national gun buyback scheme to purchase surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms - the largest buyback since the Howard government initiated one in 1996,” he said.

Albanese said there was no justification for someone in that situation to possess so many weapons, noting that Australia now has more than four million firearms, exceeding the number in circulation at the time of the Port Arthur massacre nearly 30 years ago.

He declined to specify how many firearms individuals should be allowed to own, saying gun ownership limits fall under state laws. He stressed that national safety depends on the strongest possible laws across all states, while still allowing for legitimate firearm use. He urged premiers to cooperate in the interest of keeping Australians safe.

He added that the attack was a deliberate act of violence against Australia’s Jewish community, carried out on the first day of Hanukkah, at Bondi Beach, one of the country’s most popular seaside destinations located in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, an area known as the heart of Sydney’s Jewish community and one of Australia’s two largest Jewish populations, alongside Melbourne.