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Laws tightening gun ownership and placing restrictions on protest will be rolled out in NSW following the Bondi terror attack, after a lengthy and heated debate in parliament that extended into the early hours of Christmas Eve.
The state government’s Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 passed the NSW upper house early on Wednesday morning with an amendment from the Greens banning someone from owning a gun if they have been investigated for terrorism-related offences, or live with someone who has been investigated for such offences.
NSW Premier Chris Minns on Friday. Credit: Sam Mooy
The bill will now return to the lower house to be sealed and passed into law.
NSW Premier Chris Minns recalled parliament this week to push through an omnibus bill with three key pillars: creating an offence for displaying terrorist symbols such as the IS flag; significant restrictions on firearm possession; and allowing the police commissioner to prevent protests occurring for up to three months after a terrorism incident.
The bill was opposed by the Nationals, and faced the threat of a filibuster from Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MPs Robert Borsak and Mark Banasiak.
Mark Banasiak, an MP from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party speaks during an emergency sitting of NSW parliament on Tuesday.Credit: News Corp Australia
The Legislative Council began on Tuesday with a weary acknowledgement that debate would reach well into the early hours of Christmas Eve. The list of amendments – changes various parties or MPs would like added to the omnibus bill – strayed into the hundreds on Tuesday afternoon.
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The bill encountered opposition from within Minns’ own ranks, with Labor MP Anthony D’Adam saying the link between words and actions was “tenuous” and “hard to establish”.
The government’s changes to protest laws face a constitutional challenge from activists who said the laws would remove the rights of “everyone in NSW to gather together as a community” and demand change.
More to come.
