Nationals, One Nation in competing campaigns against gun control

1 month ago 5

Nationals defector Barnaby Joyce and his former leader, David Littleproud, are running competing campaigns against the Albanese government’s proposed firearm reforms, declaring plans to restrict high-powered weapon imports and buy back guns discriminate against regional communities and lack support from state governments.

Albanese’s reforms will be brought to parliament next week in a single bill that proposes new controls on hate speech as well as a federal gun buyback, provisions for greater information sharing between security agencies, and tougher controls on firearm imports.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce and Nationals leader David Littleproud.

Nationals leader Littleproud lashed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s reforms in response to the Bondi attack, which contain reforms to both hate speech and firearm laws, as “petty, puerile, university politics” and demanded the government create separate bills for each issue.

But the Nationals’ Coalition partners in the Liberal Party have not decided how they respond to plans for greater control, and Littleproud said he would seek feedback from his party room before finalising a position.

Joyce, who joined Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party in early December, declared he could not support the bill in its current form as a gun buyback would be unfair to rural communities.

“We do not have, there is no one, there has been no massacres based on fundamentalist beliefs in Tamworth or Dubbo or Wagga Wagga. We have other problems, but this is not one of them,” Joyce said.

Joyce is riding a wave of support for his new party that has many of his former National Party colleagues nervous about losing votes to him.

One Nation attracted 6.4 per cent of the primary vote in the May 2025 election. A Resolve Political Monitor, conducted for this masthead, showed its primary vote rose to 16 per cent a week after the Bondi attack. Polls released last week in other media show One Nation’s primary vote exceeding 20 per cent.

While the government has a substantial majority in the lower house, the Nationals could be crucial to the fate of the reforms in the Senate as the government requires the support of either the Greens or the opposition to pass its combined bill of hate speech penalties, enhanced security provisions and gun reforms.

Like the Coalition parties, the Greens are yet to finalise their position on the bill.

Littleproud told Sky News federal plans for a gun buyback was “becoming a bit of a moot point” because state governments outside NSW did not back it.

State governments control gun licensing, which determines who can own firearms and how many they can possess. However, Albanese’s reforms seek to establish a federal buyback with costs split evenly with states.

NSW has passed laws imposing a limit of four guns for individuals, with an exemption of for people who need firearms for work, such as farmers, pest controllers and sporting shooters, who can own 10.

“The Northern Territory’s told [Albanese] to go away,” Littleproud said. “Tasmania basically aren’t interested. Queensland doesn’t look to be changing any of their laws.”

Both Joyce and Littleproud said Albanese’s gun laws were a distraction from the critical goal of tackling Islamist extremism – a view shared by former Liberal prime minister John Howard, despite his own gun control legacy.

They argue that recreational shooters who live in regional towns provide crucial help for farmers in controlling damaging feral pests.

The Tasmanian and the Northern Territory governments have warned they may not support the gun buyback under the current proposal to split funding 50-50 with the federal government, while the Victorian government is reviewing its gun laws before announcing a position. Queensland has said it supports reform, but the priority must be tackling extremism.

Western Australia passed laws in 2024 to tighten gun laws and NSW based its recent reforms on this legislation.

Joyce said the reforms were too interfering.

“I just want to be left alone – a law-abiding citizen who is complying with all the things I’m supposed to,” he said.

“We have a lot of people come onto our place to go pig shooting. They live in town and this is their recreation. As my father always said, because I used to get the poos with people coming here all the time, how does someone love their country if you don’t allow them to set foot on it?”

Greens leader Larissa Waters said her party was reviewing the legislation and was keen to ensure it did not restrict political freedoms such as Australian’s ability to criticise foreign government.

“We must make sure that it delivers the balance by prohibiting hate speech, by limiting guns being in the hands of people who should not have them, while avoiding unintended consequences,” Waters said.

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