Australia tightens gun laws, debates anti-hate speech bill after Sydney attack

Australia’s Parliament on Tuesday passed new gun restrictions and began debating a draft anti-hate speech bill following a deadly attack at a Jewish festival in Sydney last month that left 15 people dead. Authorities said the assault was inspired by the Islamic State group, prompting the government to fast-track legislative action.

In December 2025, a mass shooting during Hanukkah celebrations at Bondi Beach shocked the nation. The attack was carried out by a father and son, Sajid Akram, 50, and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram. Police shot dead the father at the scene, while the son was wounded and later charged with multiple offences, including 15 counts of murder and committing a terrorist act. Investigators said the assault was driven by antisemitic extremism and highlighted gaps in existing laws.

While Australia already has some of the world’s strictest gun laws , the newly passed legislation introduces additional preventive measures . It expands eligibility restrictions to bar people under surveillance by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) from owning firearms, even if they have not been convicted of a crime. The law also establishes a government-funded gun buyback programme to compensate owners required to surrender weapons under the updated rules.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told Parliament that neither of the alleged attackers would have been allowed to possess firearms under the new laws. The Indian-born father would have been barred as a non-citizen, while the Australian-born son would have been prohibited due to his past monitoring by ASIO for suspected extremist links.

The proposed anti-hate speech legislation goes beyond existing counterterrorism laws by allowing the government to outlaw hate-based extremist groups that are not formally designated as terrorist organisations . Groups such as the Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, legal in Australia but banned in some countries, could be proscribed under the new framework. ASIO would play a role in advising which organisations should be banned. Neo-Nazi group National Socialist Network has already announced plans to disband rather than face action under the law.

The two measures were initially drafted as a single bill but were split for parliamentary consideration. Both bills passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday, while the firearms legislation was cleared by the Senate. The anti-hate speech bill is expected to pass into law by Wednesday.

Parliament was recalled earlier than scheduled to respond to what has been described as Australia’s worst mass shooting since 1996 , when a lone gunman killed 35 people in Tasmania, triggering sweeping gun reforms and a buyback of nearly 700,000 firearms. However, Tasmania, Queensland and the Northern Territory have expressed resistance to sharing the cost of a new buyback scheme, a matter the federal government said it would continue to negotiate.

“In responding to the antisemitic terror attack, we need to deal with the motivation and we need to deal with the method,” Burke said. “They had weapons they should not have had.”