<\/p>\n
Australia’s lower house of parliament has voted in favour of a national gun buyback programme and new checks on firearm licence applications, a month after the deadly shooting at Bondi Beach.<\/p>\n
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said had such legislation already been in place prior to the attack that targeted a Jewish festival, the gunmen would not have legally had access to firearms.<\/p>\n
The individuals who killed 15 people on 14 December had “hate in their hearts and guns in their hands,” Burke told parliament.<\/p>\n
The father in the father-son duo allegedly behind the Bondi attack legally owned six firearms, while his son had been on the radar of intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The bill was passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 96 to 45. It will now make its way to the Senate for consideration, where it is expected to pass with the support of the Greens. <\/p>\n
Parliament is also debating hate speech reforms.<\/p>\n
The buyback scheme will target “surplus and newly restricted firearms”, Burke said, reducing the country’s 4m registered guns.<\/p>\n
Burke added that it “comes as a shock to most Australians” to know that the country has more firearms that it did before the 1996 Port Arthur attack, in which a gunman killed 35 people in Tasmania. <\/p>\n
That shooting had prompted the then government to introduce some of the world’s strictest gun controls.<\/p>\n
Other measures passed on Tuesday include stricter firearm import controls and provisions to improve information sharing between intelligence agencies on people trying to obtain gun licences. <\/p>\n
The lower house of parliament is also expected to pass reforms to hate speech on Tuesday aimed at tackling antisemitism.<\/p>\n
Its passage through the Senate had initially looked unclear after members of the conservative Liberal-National coalition opposition said its provisions could impinge on free speech among other things. <\/p>\n
However, late on Monday reports said Liberal leader Sussan Ley had reached an agreement with the government on a watered down version. It remained unclear whether the Nationals would support the legislation.<\/p>\n
Liberal MP Julian Leeser, who is Jewish, on Tuesday told parliament Bondi represented a “moment of choice” and that “the choice the Liberal Party makes this morning, as we have always done, is to stand with the Jewish community and law-abiding Australians.”<\/p>\n
The Greens have said they will not vote in favour of the reforms unless changes are made to protect all minorities and legitimate protest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Australia #parliament #votes #tighter #gun #controls #Bondi #shooting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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