The Greens will give the Federal Government the numbers to get its gun reform legislation through the Senate. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
There are four times as many firearms in Australia as there are firearm licences, and far more guns now than there were at the time of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.
New figures from the Home Affairs Department, released overnight Sunday (18 January), show there is now a record number of firearms in Australia, having reached 4,113,735.
Yet the total number of firearms licences across the country is 929,741.
In the ACT alone, there are 22,857 firearms and only 7,315 licences, while New South Wales has 1,158,654 guns and 260,946 licences.
NSW has the highest number of firearms, followed closely by Queensland (1,143,895) and Victoria (974,279).
The ACT has the lowest number of firearms of all jurisdictions, yet its total is still three times the number of firearms licences issued.
The Federal Government has released the figures to back its case for gun control to clamp down on multiple firearms per licence and close loopholes in current laws, to make gun ownership harder.
There were 3.2 million legally owned guns in Australia before the Port Arthur mass murder shootings, with the aftermath seeing then prime minister John Howard introduce tough gun ownership laws.
In releasing the new figures on Sunday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said more needed to be done following December’s Bondi terror attack.
“Our number one priority is keeping all Australians safe,” he said.
“That’s why we’re finishing the work of the Howard Government and getting dangerous guns off our streets.”
It comes as the government has been forced into splitting its hate speech and gun control legislation into two bills and dropping the racial vilification component completely.
The Greens have given their support to the gun buy-back scheme and the ownership reforms detailed in the legislation, but neither they nor the Coalition are prepared to back the bill’s racial vilification provisions.
The legislation will now be delayed until Tuesday, with Monday being solely dedicated to a condolence motion for the 15 victims of the Bondi massacre.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the Federal Parliament will now be entirely dedicated to a condolence motion for the Bondi victims on Monday, with hate speech and gun laws legislation to be introduced on Tuesday. Photo: PMO
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was only prepared to proceed with measures that have the support of the parliament.
He said gun laws will be separated, with the laws on hate crimes and migration to proceed as another bill, “but we will not be proceeding with the racial vilification provisions, because it’s clear that that will not have support”, Mr Albanese said.
While he was disappointed the Greens would not support the other elements of the legislation beyond gun control, the PM said he was impressed with how the Senate’s balance-of-power party had dealt with the government.
The same could not be said of the Federal Opposition, he said.
“The Coalition need to come up with what their position is, because at the moment, they’re defined by what they’re against, but it’s not clear what they’re for,” Mr Albanese said.
“They have, up to this point, of course, called for parliament to be recalled and then opposed it when we did it.
“They called for hate speech laws. When they’ve seen them, they’re now against them.
“We want to know what their position is on these measures, because what we don’t want to happen in this parliament is for there to be an ongoing debate, an ongoing debate of conflict.”
The government needs the support of either the Coalition or the Greens to get any of its legislation through the Senate.
On Sunday, Manager of Senate Business Katy Gallagher called on Opposition Leader Sussan Ley to unite her party and “put Australians first” to support the legislation.
“We need to get something from the Opposition,” Senator Gallagher said.
“We have not had anything to date, and we need to make sure that the parliament does deal with this legislation in a way that ensures Australians are safer, that has the Opposition putting Australia first, that the Opposition Leader seeks to unite her party and make sure that she prioritises Australians over some of the dynamics in her party room.”
Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate Jonno Duniam fronted the media late on Sunday to say Labor can only blame itself for failing to find support for its bill.
“The fact is the government have muffed this; they have completely stuffed this up,” Senator Duniam said.
“What we’re doing now, which is working through the provisions of this legislation at the invitation of the government to see what can be salvaged from these laws, should have happened at the beginning.
“These laws were drafted with no input from anyone outside of government, with no input from Opposition and non-government parties.
“So this exercise we’re going through now should have happened at the very beginning, not at the end.
“And, of course, as an Opposition, while we still have grave concerns around elements of this legislation, unintended consequences that may flow, we will work through this process.
“Australians deserve a response to what happened in Bondi, and we will do, as an Opposition, our best to do what’s right for this country and work through this process.”
