NSW parliament passes tougher laws on guns and protests after Bondi Beach attack
The laws will limit the number of guns an individual can hold. (ABC News: Sam Clark)
In short:
After a long debate that ran into the early hours of this morning, the NSW parliament has passed tough new gun and protest laws in response to the Bondi terror attack.
The bill passed 18 votes to eight and included a key amendment from the Greens on tightening firearms laws for people with suspected terrorist links.
What's next?
The legislation now goes back to the lower house to be rubberstamped later this morning.
After a marathon debate, the NSW government's controversial law reforms sparked by the Bondi massacre have passed parliament.
The bill passed 18 votes to eight just before 3am today and included a key amendment from the Greens on tightening firearms laws for people with suspected terrorist links.
For two days barbs, were traded and the Coalition was split over whether to support the bill, with the Nationals fiercely opposed to the firearms restrictions.
Not a single amendment from the Nationals, Liberals, Shooters Party, Libertarians or Greens had been successful.
But Greens MP Sue Higginson's amendment to firearms laws targeting those with suspected terrorist links passed overnight with unanimous support, bringing a brief moment of unity among MPs.
The amendment is designed to ensure the police commissioner will never grant a firearms permit to anyone known to have been investigated by a Commonwealth or state law enforcement or intelligence agency for terrorism-related offences, or someone who has any association with members of a proscribed terrorist organisation.
That includes anyone living at the same residential dwelling as someone who has been previously investigated for terrorism-related offences.
Anyone with any association to members of a proscribed terrorist organisation would also be excluded from getting a firearms permit.
Sue Higginson's amendment to the firearms laws received unanimous support. (Supplied: Sue Higginson)
Greens MP Sue Higginson said it was a "very simple" and "necessary" amendment because the existing provisions under firearms laws were too "broad" and "general".
"It states in unambiguous terms precisely what we need the police commissioner to be satisfied about before being able to grant any permit to acquire a firearm," she told the parliament.
"What we know from what we have just experienced, and the very reason we are here legislating about the firearms act tonight, is because somebody had registered firearms they simply should not have had."
Independent MP Mark Latham told the parliament the amendment "goes to the question as to how one of the Bondi gunmen, Sajid Akram, got a gun licence some years after it was known his son was being investigated for ISIS links, while living in the same house".
"So that's something that needs to be investigated," he said.
"But in short, if this provision had been in place some four or five years ago in NSW then presumably Sajid Akram wouldn't have accessed his six guns, he wouldn't have taken his four guns to Bondi, and we wouldn't have been here in this particular tragic circumstance.
"So, it's a good change, a good clarity to the existing gun licensing laws in New South Wales."
Nationals frontbencher Sarah Mitchell described the Greens amendment as "pretty much a no-brainer" and said it had her party's support.
"If you or someone in your family has been investigated for potential terrorist offences, there shouldn't be gun anywhere near you,"she said.
It was revealed in the wake of the Bondi attack that gunman Naveed Akram first came to ASIO's attention in October 2019 and was under investigation for six months but there was an assessment that he posed "no ongoing threat".
His father Sajid, who was shot dead by police at Bondi Beach, had legally owned six firearms.
Protest laws tightened despite backlash
The other part of the legislation passed overnight will restrict mass protests in the wake of a terrorism incident.
The Greens MPs described the protest reforms in the Minns government's bill as "an assault on democratic freedoms" and ultimately abstained from the final vote.
Independent MP Rod Roberts said it was a "knee-jerk bill that punishes 99.9 per cent of law-abiding firearms owners".
The legislation now goes back to the lower house to be rubberstamped later this morning.
The package of laws are a response to the Bondi terror attack which left 15 victims dead. (ABC News: Che Chorley)
Government frontbencher Penny Sharpe said it was a "balanced bill" that aimed to address the "horrific" massacre on Bondi Beach.
"There's before Bondi and after Bondi," she said.
"We are making sure we are doing what we can to deal with antisemitism and managing conflict in our community and social cohesion, and ensuring that we have the strongest gun laws in the country.
"This is a very important piece of legislation and we're very pleased that it's been passed."
A broad alliance of activist, political and community groups are preparing to mount a constitutional challenge in the courts over the restrictions on protests.
They will file papers in the Supreme Court early in the new year.
But government frontbencher Penny Sharpe said her cabinet believed the new laws were constitutional.
"Our advice says these laws have been carefully crafted," she said.
"They're not a ban on protests. Some rules around gatherings after a terror event have been declared.
"But we believe they are robust and will withstand any challenge."