MOTIONS
Mr GEE (Calare) (09:08): I move: That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Calare moving the following motion: That this House: (1) notes that: (a) the state and federal government firearm buyback amounts to legalised theft from law-abiding firearm owners; (b) the flawed gun buyback and so-called 'compensation' scheme is sending law-abiding firearm businesses broke; (c) these measures unfairly target responsible firearm owners and legitimate firearm businesses while doing nothing to address the threat posed by criminals and terrorists who obtain and use illegal firearms; and (d) instead of targeting hardworking, law-abiding Australians, state, territory and federal governments should be: (i) targeting criminals, organised crime groups and terrorists who pose a genuine threat to community safety; (ii) taking stronger action to remove illegal guns from Australian streets and to investigate, prosecute and punish those who traffic, possess, sell and use illegal guns; and (iii)undertaking a comprehensive investigation into the intelligence and security failures that contributed to the horrific Bondi terrorist attack; (2) calls on the New South Wales and federal governments to immediately repeal these flawed and grossly unfair gun laws and buyback scheme; and (3) further calls on all governments to focus their efforts on combatting criminal activity, terrorism and the illegal firearms trade rather than making law-abiding firearm owners and legitimate firearm businesses scapegoats for government failures.
Standing orders must be suspended because these gun laws are an absolute disaster for regional Australia. This buyback scheme is nothing more than legalised theft, and it needs to be rolled back today before any more firearm businesses are driven to the wall. The state and federal gun buyback scheme is an absolute insult to every law-abiding gun owner and firearm business across New South Wales and across our nation.
It is an absolute farce. We have a system where state and federal governments are forcing an estimated 50,000 law-abiding citizens in New South Wales to hand over hundreds of thousands of guns, and for what? To pay them cents on the dollar.
The amounts on offer are well below market value, penalising honest, decent Australians who've done nothing wrong and who obey the law every single day of their lives. They are rightly outraged, and they have every reason to be. This motion must be debated today because the government's response to this horrific tragedy has been a kneejerk political exercise.
Let me state clearly that every single one of us here condemns without hesitation the horrific acts of violence that occurred on 14 December 2025. These acts of terror were evil, they were shocking, and they shook our sense of safety as a nation. In the face of such tragedy and terror, the responsibility of governments of the day was to respond carefully, transparently and based strictly on evidence.
Instead, what have we seen from state and federal governments? A complete failure to meet that standard. From the very beginning, the first impulse was not to call a full and transparent royal commission to examine the deep intelligence and security failures around this act of terror.
The first impulse was to immediately push for tighter gun laws and use law-abiding gun owners as political scapegoats to cover up government failures. There are massive serious questions that remain completely unanswered: How were individuals with known links to extremism dating back years able to get access to licensed firearms when at least one of them was on a security watchlist and both of them were known to security services?
Why weren't alarm bells ringing when these people visited high-risk countries and extremist hotspots? Where were the gaps in our intelligence sharing systems, and why were they not closed earlier? How did these terrorists slip through the net?
When the interim royal commission report was released, it stated: No Commonwealth or state intelligence or law enforcement agency has suggested that it was prevented from taking prohibitive actions before or on 14 December 2025 by the then current legislative and authorising framework. That sounded like government agencies clearing themselves. In any event, no issue requiring urgent legislative action was identified, yet law-abiding gun owners in regional New South Wales and across Australia are bearing the brunt of this junk policy, purely for political reasons.
Taxpayers are going to be slugged up to $1 billion for this scheme in New South Wales, all so governments can make a political point. In the electorate of Calare, the impacts of these rushed reforms are catastrophic. They are destroying our small-business owners and hitting genuine licensed firearm owners who use their guns for farming, pest control, hunting and sporting activities.
Look at what this scheme is doing to our firearm businesses right across regional Australia. This flawed buyback scheme's pathetic, inadequate grants of up to $25,000 are not going to stop our gun shops and local firearm businesses from going broke and out of business. I recently dropped in to see Shane at Mudgee Firearms.
A $25,000 grant doesn't even touch the sides when his local business is losing $25,000 every single week in turnover. Shane is a veteran and has put his life and hard work into this business. He told me that, under these laws, trade has dropped off dramatically.
Normally, by this time of year, his shop would have sold around 800 firearms. This year, under these rushed, flawed laws and permit delays, he's sold just 33. Think about that—800 down to 33.
Shane has been forced to take up other work just to keep the doors of his business open and to pay the bills. He's had to cut his full-time staff from three down to one. Small businesses across regional New South Wales are reporting that trade is down by 80 to 85 per cent.
We see the same story at Bullets & Bits in Orange, where Ray Hawkins and Matt Shirm have seen sales collapse, going from selling three to five firearms a week down to just 15 in six months. They're pulling stock from the shelves, cutting staff hours and relying almost entirely on ammunition sales just to survive, while they're locked into commercial leases with no way out.
Over at Bathurst, Jeff at Gunsmoke gun shop told me that it's the quietest he has ever seen it in 28 years of business. He estimates that 70 per cent of gun shops across the country are likely to go under, with many not expected to last past Christmas. These are legitimate, hardworking Australians whose livelihoods are literally being destroyed.
It's creating massive financial stress, mental strain and uncertainty. The permit process has blown out. Timeframes for permits have blown out, and for what?
What do these laws actually target? What do they achieve? They do not target criminals.
Criminals, organised crime groups and terrorists do not obtain firearms through legal channels. They do not comply with licensing regimes and they certainly are not going to be handing in their guns as part of a buyback scheme. The crooks will not be handing in their guns.
Our streets are awash with illegal firearms, and, when police do manage to lock up crims for illegal weapons, the sentences imposed by the courts are so weak that they are back on the streets all too quickly. This is what police have actually told me. We must suspend standing orders to deal with this issue now.
We need to be going after the illegal firearms on our streets. We need to be targeting crooks, organised crime groups and terrorists, who pose a genuine threat to community safety, and we need stronger penalties for those who traffic, possess and use illicit weapons. In New South Wales this gun buyback scheme is going to last for 12 months.
There's a state election coming up in March. Of course, it's up to every individual as to when they enter the scheme and hand in their guns. But you never know; a strong message at the ballot box in March may make the New South Wales government change course.
A lot of gun owners are going to be watching and waiting to see if the New South Wales government heeds the message from the ballot box in March before handing in their guns. This is causing so much angst and pain across regional Australia, and the pain is real. We must bin this junk policy.
We need to repeal these flawed, grossly unfair buyback schemes, give proper respect to country communities and leave honest, peace-loving Australians alone. Stop making law-abiding gun owners and small-business owners the scapegoats. I urge every member of this House to support this motion.
We need a comprehensive, transparent investigation into the real intelligence and security breakdowns that failed to prevent the Bondi terror attack. Bin this nonsense, ridiculous policy. We need to be standing up for country Australia, defending our small businesses and bringing common sense back into this parliament.